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THE 


Git OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


UNBELIEVERS ann BELIEVERS. 


BY 
Rev. GG) Re VAUGHAN, D. D., 


OF THE SYNOD OF VIRGINIA. 


Richmond, Da. : 
PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 
1894. 


COPYRIGHTED 


BY 
JAS. K. HAZEN, Secretary of Publication, 
1894. 


PRINTED BY 
WHITTET & SHEPPERSON, 


RicHMonpD, Va. 


TO 


ROBERT LEWIS DABNEY, D. D., LL. D., 


THE EARNEST CHRISTIAN, 

THE BRAVE AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, THE PROFOUND 

THEOLOGIAN, THE DEEP PHILOSOPHER, 
THE VERSATILE THINKER, THE ACCOMPLISHED WRITER, 
THE INCORRUPTIBLE PATRIOT, THE BELOVED FRIEND OF MY YOUTH 
AND AGE, 
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, 
A FAINT BUT TRUE TESTIMONY OF ESTEEM AND 
AFFECTION, 
FROM THE AUTHOR. 


I] 


A 


PIRI AC, LE, 


N these days when the issues of the press are so numerous, 
and the multitudes of readers are so greatly increased, it 
might be a sufficient apology for a fresh publication, to 
say it was a legitimate attempt to supply a possible pub- 
lic want, justifiable under the law of supply and demand. 
This vindication rests on the implied idea that for new 
works on old subjects, and, possibly, on new ones, apol- 
ogy is necessary. But this is absurd; it is an offence to 
the undoubted rights of authors and readers alike, to con- 
ceive that any legitimate attempt to supply any legitimate 
want of the human intellect needs any apology. Lvery 
man has a right to teach his views under his own responsi- 
bility, and every man to seek the information he may desire 
to possess on any legitimate subject of inquiry. This rule is 
specially applicable to any endeavor to aid in the extension 
of religious knowledge, or the increase of Christian activity, 
or the development of Christian experience. This last is 
the main object of the following treatise. It does not seek 
to enlarge the boundaries of Christian knowledge, unless the 
attempt to restate the old familiar truths of the gospel of 
grace in the forms they have assumed in a re-thinking of 
them under the current modes of thought in the passing era 
can be so called. The object is wholly practical. There are 
no new speculations here. The discussion only seeks to 
extend the application of some of these venerable truths to 
the practical experience of Christian peopte, and to restate 
the terms on which the Christian hope may be obtained by 
5 


6 PREFACE. 


those not yet entitled to indulge it. That there is need for 
some enlarged application of the glad tidings of great joy in 
order to the increase of Christian comfort among the ser- 
vants of Christ, has long been clear to the writer. It has 
appeared in his intercourse with many Christians in the 
course of his work as a pastor in many parts of the church 
whose banner it has been his business and delight to carry 
for many chequered years. One of the most marked defects 
in the Christian character and experience of the present era 
is the want of legitimate and obligatory Christian joy. The 
standard of Christian activity is high, perhaps higher than 
it has ever been, except in some two or three periods during 
the nearly nineteen centuries of the Christian era. The 
energy of Christian work and the liberality of contribution 
to the revenues of the kingdom are commendably great in 
-many directions. The work of missions at home and 
abroad, the private and associated labors of individual 
Christians, the formation of great voluntary societies, the 
extended work of evangelists, the various objects of special 
reforms, and the enormous activity of the Christian press, all 
warrant the assertion of a superior energy in the forces of 
the kingdom. This energy in work ought to be attended 
with a corresponding increase and prevalence of Christian 
comfort. In isolated instances it may be seen. But the re- 
sult of years of observation directed to this very subject 
makes it clear, in the judgment of the writer, that there is 
grave defect in this regard in multitudes of modern believers, 
in those in whom the title of Christian appears to be vin- 
dicated by the fruits they bear in other directions. Itisa 
sad deficiency. It not only saddens those whom the gra- 
cious Lord has not saddened, but disobeys and defeats the 
gracious will of him who has commanded his servants to 
“rejoice in the Lord always,” and who has expressed his 
own solicitude that this command should be obeyed, by the 
emphatic reduplification of his order, “And again I say 


PREFACE. 7 


rejoice.” It is a grave discount of that holy faith which 
claims to be glad tidings of great joy, by showing how little 
substantial and abiding comfort it actually develops. What 
is more, this want of joy is want of strength; it brings not 
only a want of enjoyment, but a want of usefulness ; for the 
joy of the Lord is pointedly declared to be the strength of 
his people. With the suitable development of this spirit of 
joy, the energies now in exercise would not only be elevated 
in tone, but redoubled in extent. Nothing would give such 
power to a proclaimed gospel as the universal prevalence 
of this deep and staunch spirit of real and habitual joy in 
the Lord. Nothing would quench the spirit of infidelity like ; 
this undeniable and priceless benefit to human happiness. 
Infidels, just like other men, feel the pressure of the stern 
conditions of human life. They are as eager for happiness 
as other men; and if they could see the practical demonstra- 
tion of the power of the Christian faith in producing those 
effects on the human heart, on the scale of extent and degree 
which the gospel itself challenges its servants to test and 
realize, their attitude towards the gospel would be pro- 
foundly modified. They would become as keen as other 
men to share in a peace whose reality could no longer be 
questioned, whose value could no longer be disputed. 

The causes of this defect in the Christian character of the 
age may not be far to seek, but it is now beside our purpose 
to seek them. It is enough to note the fact, for proof of 
which it is not unlikely the experience of the vast majority 
of Christian people might be safely challenged. Even those 
of whom it is least true will acknowledge that their highest 
and most durable joys fall far below the warrant for joy in 
the great Christian foundation for it. There can be no 
doubt that there have been few to share in the exceeding 
joyfulness of Paul, though the warrant of hope be the same, 
and the field of lawful endeavor to obtain it is open to every 
believer. 


8 PREFACE. 


The object of this treatise, in the latter part of it especially, 
is to help the beloved of the Lord in the direction of this 
increase of the comfort of hope. But it does not seek to 
develop the whole gospel basis of it. It confines itself to 
the inward work of the Spirit. The great primary founda- 
tion of Christian joy is laid in that work of the Saviour of 
sinners which secures the actual justification of a sinning 
soul. To introduce a discussion of the forensic side of the 
great salvation would be to make a discussion designedly 
limited to the work of the Spirit embrace a treatise on the 
whole gospel. If the justification which is by faith is a real 
justification; if it not only exactly reverses all the effects of 
condemnation to which it is constantly opposed and con- 
trasted in the Scriptures, but positively establishes the 
opposite effects in legal standing, then, beyond a doubt, a 
justified soul is a saved soul; a soul absolutely saved, so far 
as a sure title guaranteed by the veracity and power of God, 
in advance of a complete actual realization, can be said to 
secure safety. This affords a foundation for hope which 
cannot be equalled. Hope is the present expectation of a 
future good, and a sure hope cannot possibly be vindicated 
except on the basis of absolute certainty of the future good. 
The relation of the Redeemer’s work to the joy of his people 
becomes clear; and assuredly no effort of the human mind 
to magnify the conception of the indebtedness of a guilty 
race to his grace could possibly overstate the case. But the 
realization of this and the other great results of the work of 
the Redeemer in the heart and consciousness of the indi- 
vidual is left to be wrought by the finger of the Holy Ghost. 
It is his allotted part to take of the things of Christ and show 
them unto us. It is his to unseal the full meaning of doc- 
trine and promise, precept and prophecy. It is his to purge 
the inward vision, to quicken the intuitions of the mind, to 
soften and sweeten the affections that the heart may receive 
the just impress of the truth, to give that faith which is the 


* 


PREFACE. 9 


substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen, to restrain and eradicate the evil energies that obscure 
the vision and prevent the natural effects of the glad tidings 
of great joy. In a word, it is his office to give effect to the 
whole wonderful revelation of the divine mercy to a sinful 
race. Truth not rightly apprehended loses all its power. 
The mind of the learner must be opened to receive it. 
There must be a connection between the mind and its ob- 
jects. All the power of the truth, whether to quicken, or 
comfort, or purify, is dependent upon this open apprehen- 
sion. It is the office of the Blessed Spirit to control this 
essential communication by controlling the apprehensive 
mind of the seeker after safety. He guides the understand- 
ing; hé moulds the heart into this capacity of rightly ap- 
prehending the truth. He does this in various ways ; ways 
varied by the truth itself, by the relation of the individual 
to the covenant of grace as a believer or unbeliever, and by 
the object he may have it in hand to accomplish. Some 
truths are designed and adapted to produce certain effects ; 
other truths, other effects. The Spirit works accordingly ; this 
is true in both departments of his work, in the conversion of 
the unconverted, and in the sanctification of the converted. 
The work is done by distinct influences, producing distinct 
effects in both classes of persons, but in ways incomprehen- 
sible by us. The object of this discussion is to illustrate 
some of these influences, under the names appropriated to 
them in the sacred record, on both classes of their sub- 
jects. 

Many years ago the mind of the writer was strongly drawn 
to a more special study of the general and special acts of the 
work of the Holy Spirit by a little treatise on the Love of 
the Spirit, by the Rev. Robert Phillip, Incumbent of 
Maberly Chapel, near the city of London. Mr. Phillip was 
one of those lovely and deeply-instructed ministers of the 
Lord Jesus who have illustrated the evangelical party in the 


10 PREFACE. 


Church of England. His little book on the Love of the 
Spirit was issued apparently about the year 1832. He was 
also the author of several other treatises of an intensely 
evangelical character, among which, [/is Guides to Devotion 
have been reprinted in this country by the Carters, of New 
York. The gem of his productions is the little treatise on 
the grace of the Blessed Comforter; we would rather have 
written that simple, but striking history of the dealings of 
the Spirit than to have written Hamlet or Othello. The 
work is now out of print; but it ought never to be allowed 
to perish. Mr. Phillip illustrates the love of the Spirit in 
his various broadly classified works in the soul, such as 
awakening, conviction, conversion, and sanctification; and in 
some of his special works in the soul of the believer, such as 
sealing, unction, witness bearing, and calling to remem- 
brance. Our own discussion follows closely in some particu- 
lars the series of topics, because essential to the development 
of the subject; but the treatment is different under each, and 
quite divergent under some, while necessarily similar in 
some respects. Acknowledging gratefully our obligation to 
his deep spiritual discernment, and grateful for the personal 
benefit derived from his work, our more pronounced adhe- 
sion to the Calvinistic theology has compelled a more dis- 
tinct tracery of the gifts of the Spirit to their fountain in the 
distinguishing grace of the Father. Mr. Phillip was nota 
Calvinist pronounced, but it is curious to see how his deep 
spiritual intuitions and his rich experience of grace led him 
to assert premises which he was not prepared to follow to 
their conclusions. While the lines of thought in the two. 
discussions necessarily run parallel in treating the same 
truths, the treatment will be found so different as to show 
that the relation of a pupil to his master may be honorably 
sustained, without servile imitation on one side, or unlawful 
and unconfessed appropriation on the other. The two dis- 
cussions may be well handled together; and if the gracious 


PREFACE. AL 


work of the English preacher is destined to see the light no 
more, it will be a grateful reward to his Virginian follower 
to hope that his less valuable work may partially take its 
place, fora time, in helping the Master’s pilgrims on their 
way to the Celestial City. Its highest aim is to be a vade 
mecum with some of the marching host. 

The original design was simply to illustrate the gifts of the 
Spirit to believers. But on submitting the MSS. to one of 
the loveliest Christians he has ever known, who unites in @ 
high degree the capacities of a profound thinker with the 
most attractive charms of popular eloquence, the suggestion 
was made that the discussion be extended to the dimensions 
of a treatise on the whole work of the Spirit. The sugges- 
tion has been followed to a certain extent; and the discus- 
sion on the gifts of the Spirit to unbelievers has been added. 
Neither pretend to be exhaustive. His valued encourage- 
ment to publish had been preceded by the requests of 
others. If our personal sense of independent and unquali- 
fied right to discharge the commission of a gospel teacher, 
both with pen and tongue, needed any such support as the 
desire of others, it might be justly claimed. Originally de- 
livered as sermons in the ordinary discharge of pastoral 
duty, they were often followed by the request of elders, pri- 
vate Christians, and brother ministers of the sospel, to put 
them in a shape in which they could be permanently handled. 
So often and so earnestly was this done, it may have been a 
possible call of a higher authority to do it. At all events, 
these requests have created a boldness in attempting it which 
might never have sprung from a simple conviction of a right 
to do it. As the great desire of the writer was more com- 
pletely to discharge his commission as a teacher of the gos- 
pel, and in a shape to do it after his lips are cold, he has 
sought to do it by honoring that blessed one to whose 
patient and tender grace he owes so much, through all the 
vicissitudes of a life not free from trial, both in his personal 


12 PREFACE. 


experience and in his official work. The discussion itself will 
show that the author has sought no praise for learning or 
profundity of thought. If, by the favor of God, the work can 
find its way to the hands of any class of inquiring sinners, 
and, as he originally designed and hoped, it shall prove ever 
so small an aid to the struggling saints of the Lord Jesus, 
-by stimulating them to seek for larger and more abiding 
measures of the joy of his salvation, his dearest wish will be 
accomplished, and he will give hearty thanks to him who has 
commissioned his ministers to comfort his people. 


C. BR. V. 


COMNTMEINTUS: 


GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


PAGE, 
CHAPTER I. 
Restramr or Depravity anp Movutpine or tHE Mora Nature, Leh 
CHAPTER II 
AWAKENING INFLUENCE, = ; : é ; ; : Al 
CHAPTER II. 
Convictina INFLUENCE, : : : : - ; : 57 
CHAPTER IV. 
REPENTANCE, : : AQ. : : : . 73 
CHAPTER V. 
Fairs, a aw: : : : ; : OL 
CHAPTER VI. 
Tue Necessiry oF REGENERATION, . : : : ' oo Ay 
CHAPTER VIL. 
Ture Nature oF REGENERATION, . : E ; : a eLb3 
GHAGB ENERGY Lil 
Tur Nature or REGENERATION—Continued, . : we, el 
CHAPTER IX. 
Tur EvipEences OF REGENERATION, . ; é : : oo aki ak 


13 


14 ConrTENTS. 


GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


CHAPTER I. 


Tue Speciay Girt or THE Hoty Sprerr Himsetr to BELIEVERS, 


CHAPTER II: 


Girt oF A Pecutiar Knowiepcs or Inrurrion to BEeLievers, . 


CHAPTER ITI. 


Girt or KnowLepGre or Turee Parricutar Trurus to Br- 
LIEVERS, 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT, . 


CHAPTER V. 


Tae Uncrion or Tae Spi, 


CHAPTER VI. 


THe WIrtNEss OF THE SPIRIT, : : : - A 


CHAPTER VII. 


THe Earnest oF THE Spirit, . 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Tue Lrapine oF THE Spirit, 


CHAPTER IX. 


Tue Inrercession or THe Spirit, . 


CHAPTER X. 


Tue Comfort oF THE Spirit, 


PaaH, 


211 


227 


242 


259 


276 


291 


303 


321 


334 


350 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Tur Sprrit as A REMINDER, 


CHAPTER XII. 


Tur Love oF THE SPIRIT, 


CHAPTER XII. 


Tue Sprait in Pustic WorsHIP, 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Tur PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT, 


15 


PAGE. 


363 


376 


391 


403 


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fs LO UNBELIEVERS. 


OpHeAS Pe eh haets 


RHSTRAINT OF DEHPRAVITY AND MOULDING OF .THE 
MORAL NATURE. 


‘‘ He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilely with his ser- 
vants.”— David in Psalms. 


‘« And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.’—Moses in Haxodus. 


“‘God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”—Pawl in Romans. 


18 HE doctrine of the influence of the Holy Spirit on 
the human heart is one of those doctrines of the 

inspired books towards which the carnal mind has always 
displayed the most uncompromising hostility. It has been 
denied as false; it has been scorned as fanatical; it has 
been assailed with positive hatred as an offence to the dig- 
nity and virtue of man. No weapon of argument or invec- 
tive has been spared in the assault upon it. No restraint 
has been put on the virulent feeling it awakens in the open 
enemies of evangelical religion; and in the case of many 
who avow a general respect for the Christian faith there is 
a secret and strong contempt for the doctrine itself, for those 
who accept it, and especially for those who profess them- 
selves to be actual subjects of this gracious influence. We 
do not propose, in a brief discussion, whose object is con- 
fined to the treatment of a single class of the influences of 
the Spirit, to vindicate at length the truth of this doctrine. 
We shall only briefly suggest one or two of the main points 
in the evidence. The word of God asserts it in the most. 
aif 


18 GIFTs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


positive terms, and describes the various effects designed to 
be accomplished by it. The action is described as a secret 
touch on the soul, which does not interfere with the ordinary 
laws which regulate mental action. Its immediate effects 
are, therefore, not distinguishable usually from the usnal 
manifestations of the operations of ordinary thought and 
feeling, and the real nature of the influence could, perhaps, 
never be known as a divine influence, except for the teach- 
ings of the Scriptures. But those teachings do afford a test 
of the truth of these operations, and of the source from 
which they come, of a most searching character. Not only 
the fact of the intervention of the Holy Ghost, but his 
detailed operations are asserted, and drawn out in their vari- 
ous consecutive and independent relations. This action and 
that are described; this object and another are asseited. 
This modification of thought and that manifestation of feel- 
ing are exhibited. These effects are said to be produced by 
the influence of the Spirit, and to be incapable of intro- 
duction into the mind when that influence is withdrawn. 
These effects are said to be exerted under certain condi- 
tions, and, if they are true, they will certainly be registered 
in human consciousness, and are consequently subject to 
inspection and report, just as any other mental modifications 
are subject to it. 

The doctrine of the Spirit’s influence, resting primarily on 
the testimony of God in his word, is thus brought secondarily 
under the jurisdiction of human experience and human tes- 
timony. As the record describes the consecutive mental 
states and the conditions under which they will arise, and 
under which alone they can arise, itis obvious that the com- 
plication and interdependence of these processes of thought 
and feeling will make up an experimental test of the doctrine 
sufficient to satisfy every rational demand. Inasmuch as 
many o: these effects are claimed to be profound and perma- 
nent modifications of character, moral tastes, inclinations, 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 19 


feelings, affections, principles of action, and sources of joy 
and grief, and through these of the whole line of conduct in 
the entire lives of men, it is obvious that human experience, 
in long-protracted and varied forms, can be brought to test 
this doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. To say that this ex- 
perience, revealed in the testimony of living men, is not to be 
received on such a subject, is absurd. Why may not a 
series of mental modifications on the subject of religion be 
as truly observed and reported as a series of mental modifi- 
cations on any other subject? Shall it be said that men are 
so peculiarly liable to be deceived on this peculiar subject, 
so open to the influences of enthusiasm, fanaticism, and the 
misguidance of their own fancies, that their testimony is 
worthless? Admitting the allegation would only impose tho 
obligation to make the test sufficiently stringent and diver- 
sified to sift the testimony to any reasonable extent. If 
some men are easily liable to imposition, there are others 
who can be trusted to report the facts in their own conscious- 
ness, and the field of inquiry is so vast in this case as to 
satisfy any demand possible to be made. Shall it be said 
that the observation of mental phenomena and the tracing of 
their mutual relations is a difficult thing for the disciplined 
few, and an absolute impossibility for the untrained many? 
The answer is obvious. The matter to be reported is a sim- 
ple series of facts in consciousness, which does not require 
profound capacities of mental analysis or trained habits of 
mental introspection to report them. It would be intolerable 
to impeach a plain man’s assertion that he had a memory, or 
that he remembered certain thoughts, and the feelings they 
awakened. His attempt to explain the phenomena, of 
which his consciousness and memory are perfect—to elab- 
orate the laws and distinguish the interdependence of his 
mental states—might be reasonably impeached ; but his re- 
port of simple facts lying in his consciousness is entirely 
reliable. The human mind is no more liable to be deceived 


20 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


in observing and reporting the current of conscious feeling 
on the subject of religion than on any other subject. Nor 
are the more recondite inter-relations and laws of religious 
mental states any more incapable of just analysis by compe- 
tent metaphysical talent than those of any other kind of 
mental states. Suppose that one of these open enemies of 
the Christian gospel were asked to state the real nature of 
Lis feelings towards it. He would have no hesitation in say- 
ing I dislike it; and no profound mental investigation or 
analysis of his mental states would be at all necessary to 
enable him to report his feelings reliably. If this was de- 
manded of him as a condition to his being believed, he 
would at once see the absurdity of it. The state of his feel- 
ing would lie clear in his consciousness, and he would feel 
himself seriously aggrieved if any one should doubt the truth 
of his report. 

Now, suppose a change should take place in this feeling, 
and instead of dislike, he should learn to like the faith he 
once despised. Would not this change be just as easily dis- 
cerned in his consciousness, and be just as reliably reported, 
as the original state of his feelings? No man can question 
this; yet this simple and irresistible method of getting at 
the facts of consciousness is the mode in which the testi- 
mony of the millions of evangelical Christians to the facts 
of Christian experience is given, and proves that testimony 
to be absolutely trustworthy. Perhaps this changed enemy 
of the gospel may be a disciplined metaphysical thinker, 
capable not only of observing the facts, but of tracing the 
relations and interdependence of the facts in the changes he 
reports. There is room for the exertion of the highest men- 
tal acumen in observing and discriminating the mental phe- 
nomena developed by the work of grace. This species of 
human testimony would have its own peculiar value; but it 
would not at all discount the value of the testimony given 
by the mass of evangelical people. The simple and direct 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. ya 


testimony to the facts of consciousness may be even more 
valuable to many an investigator, who might rely on the re- 
port of the facts, and yet not altogether confide in the dis- 
tinctions and relations between the facts as reported by the 
philosophic observer. But in point of fact, both of these 
classes of witnesses to the operations of the Holy Spirit are 
available ; they can be found in every variety, from the high- 
est and most profound metaphysical intellects, down along the 
whole scale of gradation, among minds not metaphysically 
trained, from the best of such minds to the humblest. They 
can be found in the literature of successive generations of 
Christians, in every age of the Christian era, and among 
many nationalities of the human race. The testimony is not 
merely sufficient, it is overwhelming, and the doctrine of the 
Spirit’s influence stands impregnable; jirst, on the basis of a 
positive divine testimony ; and second, on the basis of a hu- 
man experience and testimony on a scale of magnitude and 
worthiness of confidence unapproached on any other similar 
subject in the annals of the world. 

Tn plain truth, the doctrine of the Spirit’s influence is an 
irresistible and not remote inference from the doctrine of the 
divine existence. How any one who admits the existence of 
a Deity at all can seriously balk at the doctrine of the possi- 
ble contact of the Holy Ghost with the human soul, is one 
of those anomalies of human thought which passes the 
bounds of human comprehension. God exists; he is the 
maker of all other beings or things that exist; he has made 
them for a purpose; and to suppose an impassable barrier 
between him and his creatures, shutting him off from all 
communication with them adapted to their several na‘wes, 
and thus abandoning the original end and purpose of their 
creation to absolute uncertainty of accomplishment, is in- 
consistent with the very notion of an intelligent and all- 
powerful being. Such a being under such conditions of re- 
straint is impossible. The notion is absurd. The necessity 


22 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


of this ability to communicate with the creature grows more 
obvious in proportion to the degree in which the creature 
rises in the scale of being, and the ends to be accomplished 
by him increase in importance. Man stands at the head of 
the earthly scale; he is a being of endowments, absolutely 
grand and awful in the sublimity of his nature and the pos- 
sibilities of his career. To say that God cannot come into 
contact and communion with such a being, to instruct and 
cuide, to aid and defend, to control and mould him, so as to 
accomplish the possibilities of good and avert the possibili- 
ties of evil incident to his nature and the circumstances of 
his position, is to assert a proposition as cruel as it is ab- 
surd; as perilous in point of morals as it is foolish in point 
of sense. 

Tf, then, it cannot be rationally denied that the Creator 
may come into effectual relations with his creatures, and em- 
phatically with man, it is totally irrational to impeach the 
credibility of the influence of the Holy Ghost. That doc- 
trine is only the specific statement and explanation of the 
mode in which this possible contact of God with man is re- 
alized. It differs from the general conception of the divine 
influence on this particular creature merely as the specific 
differs from the general on all subjects which admit of the 
distinction. The one proposition. asserts a fact; the other, 
the mode of the fact. There is no inconsistency in saying a 
mab traveled to a certain place, and in saying he traveled 
there on horseback, or in a carriage. The statement of a 
fact in general terms is not at all impeached or discredited 
by the additional statement of the mode or method in which 
it occurred. Everything that happens must happen in a 
certain way. If God communicates with any creature he has 
made, there must be a certain way in which he does it, and 
this way will be adjusted according to the nature of the 
creature. The power of God will be exerted in one way on 
a vegetable, in another way on an irrational animal, in an- 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETO. 23 


other and altogether different way on a rational and account- 
able being. His intellect will be affected by some intelli- 
gent method; his moral nature will be affected by some 
moral influence; his faculties will all be appealed to by an 
adjustment suitable to each one of them. There is no de- 
nying the possible influence of the Holy Spirit but by deny- 
ing the existence of God. To admit his existence is to ad- 
mit the necessary attributes of his character; and to admit 
both of these and to deny the possibility of his communica- 
tion with any work of his hands, and especially with the 
most important of them all, is an absolute contradiction. It 
is to deny the possibility of religion altogether. It is to 
render the unquenchable religious instincts of the human 
being absolute anomalies; to predicate faculties without any 
adjustments to them in the system of the universe. ‘The ex- 
istence of these religious proclivities of human nature is as 
absolutely unquestionable as the proclivities of his intellect 
towards knowledge, or of his appetites towards physical 
gratifications. The one may be as safely denied as the other. 
But all the adjustments of nature are truly made, and the re- 
ligious instincts of the human soul point resistlessly to the 
existence of God and to his conversableness with man. If he 
is conversable with man, the influence of the Spirit on the 
human heart cannot be logically denied, since it is only the 
mode in which this conversableness is realized. If logically 
possible, the proof of the influence, as a matter of fact, may 
be safely left to rest on the evidence in the case, as already 
discussed, the testimony of God in the inspired books and 
in the experience of his servants. 

9. The reality and the actual nature of the gifts of the 
Spirit to unbelieving men will be brought into view by con- 
sidering the nature of sin and its inevitable natural tenden- 
cies on the nature of the violator of law. All the creatures 
of God are subjected to a law suitable to their natures; they 
are conditioned to live; and the well-being of each is abso- 


24. GiFts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


lutely dependent on conformity to these conditions which 
constitute the law of their being. The bird is conditioned 
to live in the air, and the fish in the water. Let either of 
them break these laws of their being; let the fish leave the 
water and essay to live in the air; let the bird leave the air 
and essay to live in the water, and the consequences will be 
unavoidable. Suffering and death will ensue. If man vio- 
lates the law of his being the same result will appear; his 
nature will be injured; his strength and healthfulness will 
be damaged; his comfort will be impaired; and as the final 
effect death will emerge. If he violate the laws of his physi- 
cal constitution, his physical nature will degenerate, and his 
physical comfort will be destroyed. If he violate the law of 
his intellectual nature, his intellectual power will be damaged, 
and the operation of his faculties will be troublesome. If he 
violate the law of his moral nature, the grandest and most 
important department of his wonderful constitution, that 
department of his nature will become morally corrupt, and 
the peculiar distresses of such a disorder, coupled with the 
peculiar sufferings of a guilty conscience, will follow. Sin 
is the transgression of moral law; even the breach of a 
positive divine statute is a breach of moral obligation to 
obey God. The effects of sin inevitably appear more or less 
directly in three directions—in the incurrence of guilt, in the 
influx of depravity, and in the introduction of suffering. 

Our attention is now drawn to the reaction of sin on the 
nature of the transgressor. Sin is an energy of tremendous 
power; it works towards all its natural effects with a swift, 
relentless proclivity. Every sinful act recoils on the inward 
nature of the actor, and stamps an indelible impression upon 
it. Each act imprints its own likeness, and the varied forms 
of sin develop a complicated and rapid picture of all evil on 
the soul. Wicked men grow worse and worse. The law of 
increase by exercise is all-powerful in things evil, as it is in 
things good. There is also something contagious in moral 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 25 


evil, which makes it peculiarly subject to this law of increase 
by indulgence. The great range of this influence of moral 
depravity is another distinct element to be considered in 
estimating the fearful character of its dominion. As the 
moral law covers every energy of every department of human 
nature, the moral energy of the soul which adjusts it to the 
law is incessantly called into play, and its reactionary effect 
on the moral nature is incessantly exerted. It affects the 
powers of the understanding, colors its perceptions, affects 
the judgment, pollutes the fancy, enfeebles the memory, 
weakens the capacity of invention, corrupts the sense of wit 
and humor, blunts the intuitions of right and wrong, and in 
the extreme cases of its deadly influence inverts that master- 
ful distinction, and appears to annihilate the ability to dis- 
criminate it altogether. By its deadly reaction sin works 
an enormous deterioration in all the energies of the human 
heart, hardens the sensibilities, corrupts the affections, in- 
flames the passions, distorts the positive volitions as well as 
the transient impulses of the will, and kindles all the ener- 
gies of the moral nature into more and more dangerous in- 
struments of fresh and progressive mischief. It not only 
perverts and deadens the intuitions of conscience, but 
weakens and often destroys to all appearance the authority 
and restraining power of conscience. Sin exerts a swift and 
inflexible influence to deprave the whole man, and, by neces- 
sary consequence, to affect his activities in every possible 
relation he can sustain to all other beings. It renders him 
more and more unfit to discharge the functions of every rela- 
tion whatever. It makes him a worse father, husband, 
neighbor, citizen, soldier, or civilian. As its evil energies 
take effect and continually grow, he will become more unfit 
for duty, more and more dangerous as a factor in society. 
A certain degree of sensibility to the charms, and a certain 
practical regara to the positive obligations of truth, justice, 
kindness, and integrity, is essential to the very existence, to 


26 GIFTs To UNBELIEVERS. 


say nothing of the happy working, of society. The larger 
measures of them are indispensable to the higher develop- 
ments of a genuine civilization. The perception and prac- 
tical acknowledgment of the binding force, the equity, the 
wisdom, and the absolute necessity of the great moral con- 
ceptions, is essential to the peace of families, to the welfare 
of neighborhoods, to the safety of states, to the operations of 
commerce, to the progress of learning—in a word, to all the 
well-being of mankind... To the individual man a measure of 
compliance with the demands of personal integrity is indis- 
pensable to his safety and comfort. The unrestrained indul- 
gence of his own passions will certainly and speedily work 
out his destruction. From this swift, relentless, unpausing, 
and universal tendency in sin to work out all its natural 
effects, and especially this tendency to corrupt the very 
nature and fountain of energy in the transgressor, the con- 
clusion is irresistible, that unless some vast restraining 
power is introduced to check and hold under a competent 
restriction this enormous and deadly energy of sin, there 
would be no possible prevention of all the complicated evil 
consequences that would inevitably flow from it. 

We are now at a point of view which will enable us to 
form some idea of the grand influence which the Holy Spirit 
of God exerts upon unbelieving and ungodly men for their 
personal and associated well-being. He exerts that grand 
restraining influence without which there can be no such 
things as home, society, government, civilization, or indi- 
vidual enjoyment anywhere among all the millions of the 
sinning human race. He restrains both the sinful acts and 
the natural tendencies of the acts within some tolerable 
bounds. He prevents these evil tendencies from running 
down into their extreme degrees, and thus secures all the 
great advantages which are dependent on some effective 
moral energies in the character and conduct of the individual 
and the associated man. The nature of this influence can 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 27 


only be described in general terms. The method of its exer- 
tion, like all the evangelic work of the Spirit, is wrapped in 
impenetrable mystery. It is mainly a restraining influence 
upon the evil energies it undertakes to combat. But there is 
also, no doubt, a communication of positive good on a lesser 
scale, a grant not of that saving grace which he gives under 
the limitations of God’s eternal counsel where the gospel is 
preached, but an effective aid in the culture of the moral vir- 
tues in the pagan heroes, without which the natural effects of 
unrestrained sin would have rendered impossible. But the 
the main action is restraint upon sin. 

Let us look at some of the features of this vast benefit to 
an unholy world. By some few speculators, misinterpreting 
certain expressions in the word of God, he has been sus- 
pected of the gross dishonor of infusing moral evil by a posi- 
tive communication into the hearts of those unhappy men 
who have brought themselves under God’s judicial anger. It 
is supposed to be capable of vindication because it is judi- 
cially done, as the execution of a penal sentence. A few 
still more desperate speculators have affirmed it, as not only 
done, but sovereignly done, and apart from all judicial con- 
siderations whatever. But whether the conception is based 
on considerations of judgment or sovereignty, the idea of the 
Holy God positively infusing depravity into a creature’s na- 
ture is utterly false, as false as it is blasphemous. God is in 
no sense the author of sin. It is an absurdity in itself; the 
very notion involves impossibility, not merely from the moral 
qualities of the divine nature, but in the nature of the thing 
supposed. Moral depravity is lodged in the human wi// ; it 
is a manifestation of will in man, and the very nature of the 
case, as the manifestation of will in one being positively ex- 
cludes it as founding in the will of all other beings. But, 
more than this, the desperate theory is excluded by the ab- 
solute superfluousness of the demand, even supposing it to 
be possible. There is no necessity for God to infuse de- 


28 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


pravity, even as the execution of a judicial sentence. All he 
need do is to withdraw restraint on the native impulse and 
energy of sin. If there is any just occasion for the interpo- 
sition of judicial wrath, and in the exercise of his sovereign 
good pleasure in selecting the mode of executing the judicial 
decree, he pleases to allow the transgressor to run into more 
ruinous excesses, he has no need for any positive action. 
All he would have to do would be to withhold his restraining 
grace, which he is under no obligation to exert, and let loose 
the sin which he has hitherto dammed back in the unholy 
heart. This was the process by which he hardened Pha- 
raoh’s heart, and gave all the heathen world over to a repro- 
bate mind. These instances illustrate two distinct points: 
First, the matter of fact of a removal of restraining grace in 
judicial cases; and second, this removal demonstrates the 
prior existence of the restraining grace before the parties 
were given over to the free play of their own wickedness. 
What was true of illustrative instances is true of the whole 
illustrated class. This is proved by the relentless tendency 
of sin towards its own natural effects—a proclivity to in- 
crease and intensify in the soul indefinitely, just like a viru- | 
lent disease in the body to run to its extreme results. Both 
will inevitably, and with more or less rapidity, do this, unless 
checked by some opposing force. ‘To cure in either case, an 
influence, not merely to check, but to reverse the course of 
the destructive tendencies, is indispensably necessary. 

A brief citation of some of the gifts of the Spirit to ungodly 
men in heathen as in Christian lands can now be made. 
While the list shall be short, the blessings themselves are 
immeasurably great. 

_ 3. By his restraint on the growth of depravity in the 
human heart, the Holy Ghost preserves the moral element 
in human nature from running down into a complete paraly- 
sis and incapacity of any degree of good moral energy. The 
total depravity asserted in the Scriptures is a totality of ex- 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 29 


tent, not of degree. A single sin extinguishes spiritual life, 
that holiness which is essential to the perfect integrity of 
moral action, but does not bring to perfection that evil energy 
which takes the place of the extinguished holiness. That 
evil energy increases with every evil act to which it leads. 
The loss of life is complete, but the corruption which ensues 
may exist in a limitless variety of degrees. Total depravity 
pervades all the powers of the soul; it excludes from the acts 
of the soul, and the character or habit formed by those acts, 
all absolute and perfect good; but it exists in a vast scale of 
degrees, and is capable of an endless succession and assort- 
ment of such varieties. An immortal being endlessly violat- 
ing law will never reach a limit to his possible degradation. 
He will grow worse and worse in his nature the more he 
multiplies sin in his acts. He will grow worse and worse as 
long as he acts, which will be forever. But even in this 
world the moral nature in man is capable of a deterioration 
fearful to comtemplate. The restraints of the Spirit are de- 
signed merely to check, not to prevent, the growth of depravity. 
Particular instances in the case of individual men are often 
allowed to disclose the fearful results of a depraved will 
from which the restraints have been partially removed; for 
even in these instances the suspension of the blessed restraint 
is only partial. Particular instances on a larger scale, show- 
ing the effects on bodies of men, are sometimes disclosed in 
what are called the barbarous tribes of the human family. 
Among these degraded races the moral degradation proceeds 
to such extreme lengths as to almost efface the traits of 
human nature altogether, and develop a positive brute char- 
acter, as much more dangerous than the fiercest of the original 
brutes as the improved ingenuity of a rational intellect 
exceeds the instincts of the mere animal being. Some are 
degraded until the very existence of any rational capacity is 
left disputable. Moral conceptions are found reduced to 
the lowest apparently possible scale among these miserable 


30 GIFTs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


creatures, and the results are seen in the wretchedness and 
incessant perils which distinguish their ordinary lives. The 
influences of the Spirit restraining the natural progress of 
depravity leaves the moral energies, not indeed capable of 
any activities really holy, but capable of an effective sense of 
justice and benevolence, civil wisdom and prudence, and the 
force of moral obligations generally. The moral intuitions 
of the understanding are preserved in some effective and 
useful degree. The sensibilities of the heart are left capable 
of impressions of humanity. The affections remain capable 
of domestic and social love, the sense of honor, the love of 
country, literature and art, capable not only of sympathy 
with noble ends and ideas, but of improvement on a vast 
scale. These valuable traits can be carried to a noble de- 
velopment by wise discipline and educational training, by 
the restraints and the stimulants of civil society, public 
opinion and private influence. The styptics of moral em- 
balmment may long preserve the beauty of the dead from dis- 
solving in the ultimate processes of corruption, though they 
can no more restore spiritual life to the soul than physical 
life to the body when either have departed. But that which 
is preserved for effective service in the present life is of in- 
estimable value; it constitutes the main source of human 
happiness in this strange world. The debt of obligation to 
the gracious Spirit of the Lord for securing this inestimable 
benefit to unbelieving and disobedient men is supremely 
sreat. All the good effects of this retained efficiency of the 
moral energies are due to this gift of the Holy Spirit. 

4, Among these good effects we may cite the preservation 
of moral knowledge, the just conception, as far as it goes, of 
the nature and authority of moral truth. Apart from the re- 
vealed word of God, this knowledge is very imperfect, — 
and, with the Scriptures, the moral conceptions of vast 
multitudes are also gravely deficient. But still, the re- 
traints of the Spirit on the growth of depravity, and per- 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. OL 


haps some positive aid to the moral intuitions, have left 
moral ideas to an effective influence of inestimable value. 
In the restrained moral nature, moral ideas spring up; moral 
obligation is felt in at least some measure of its authority; 
moral rules are discovered; moral principles, as impelling 
forces to action, are inculcated; moral speculations develop 
theories and schools of moral philosophy. Moral notions, 
regulating feeling, character, conduct, are felt to be the in- 
dispensable cement of the social structure, without which it 
could not exist. It comes to be seen, that without these 
conceptions no human relations could be supported. They, 
therefore, rise to a strong and invaluable ascendency, per- 
vade every branch of advanced human society, and make pos- 
sible all the sources of comfort, and all the noble enterprises 
for which society provides. Jor this effective knowledge of 
moral truth, even where the Christian records are unknown, 
and for all the good effects that knowledge secures, men are 
bound in gratitude to the Holy Spirit. 

5. One more beneficial etfect of the restraining influences 
of the Spirit on ungodly men, is the prevention of the dan- 
_ gerous prevalence of abnormal wickedness in individual men, 
and the prevention of particular crimes in men of the com- 
mon standard of character, and less frequently, perhaps, 
but with even wider benefit, in nations and smaller commu- 
nities. Allusion has been made to the fact that moral mon- 
sters are occasionally seen; any great prevalence of these 
characters would be a momentous calamity. What are 
called the vicious, or dangerous classes, are discoverable in 
the great cities of states highly civilized, in greater or less 
numbers, and in the regions occupied by half-civilized noma- 
dic tribes. These classes are the terror of the communities 
in which they are found, and to the regions opened to the 
incursion of these lawless marauders. History samples both 
in the No Popery riots in London during the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and in the invasions of Attila and the Saracens. Un- 


32 GiFrTts To UNBELIEVERS. 


less these ruthless classes can be held under the terrors of 
the law, civil or military, no security for life or property can 
be found. If the whole or the bulk of the population were 
made up of such characters, all the ends of civil society 
would be annihilated. Even an occasional specimen of these 
extreme cases of moral lawlessness is enough to destroy the 
security of a whole neighborhood. The occasional unloos- 
ing of the restraints which occasion these dangerous mani- 
festations illustrates the value of the restrictions which 
only allow them to appear unfrequently. The more severe 
operations of human law would be far oftener called into 
action if it were not for the restraining agency of divine 
power through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Often, too, 
beyond a doubt, the exasperated passions of individual 
men are turned into safer channels by his secret touch. 
The rage of Esau was thus averted from Jacob. Often, too, 
the violent counsels of national governments, or riotous 
masses of seditious mobs, are turned aside. The depraved 
condition of human nature affords a perilous basis for par- 
ticular temptations. No one is exempt from the prudent 
as well as holy obligation to pray, “lead us not into tempta- 
tion, but deliver us from evil.” The sudden and violent in- 
fluence of strong temptation has placed many a humane and 
generous disposition on the verge of a criminal action which 
would have darkened the whole future of life. The secret 
restraints of the Holy Spirit in the critical moment have 
often averted crime and its calamities, and when this is done, 
a great mercy is bestowed. The counsels of nations are 
sometimes as effectually modified. 

6. To this grand restraining and modifying influence of 
the Holy Spirit is due the development of civilization, the 
safe accumulation of wealth, and all the vast benefits condi- 
tioned upon it, and all the conditions which make learning 
and scientific investigations possible. To it is it due that 
there is such a thing as a respectable man in a depraved 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 30 


race. ‘To it is due the existence of that confidence which 
makes trade and commerce possible. To it is due the pro- 
tection of law, and the benefits of civil government. To it is 
due the development of art in all its forms. To it is due the 
existence of homes, and the refining and enjoyable influences 
of refined society. In one word, all earthly good rests wpon 
it as its ultimate bases; for the natural tendencies of sin in 
the human heart, left without restraint, would soon render 
society impossible, and overwhelm the very existence of the 
human race under the violence of its own lawlessness. 

7. Among the gifts of the Spirit to unbelievers are found 
all those evangelical influences, of every kind and degree, 
brought to bear, previous to conversion, on the views and 
character of unconverted men. Besides those special influ- 
ences of divine grace in the positive awakening and effective 
natural conviction, which will receive a special treatment in 
the progress of this discussion, there are special positive as 
well as restraining influences of the Holy Ghost, which are 
brought to bear on ungodly men living under Christian 
institutions. Hffective religious education and training in 
religious observances, the discipline of a Christian home, 
the regular instructions of the pulpit, the example and direct 
influence of pious friends, protection from dangerous asso- 
ciations, restraint from committing particular sins and en- 
tering scenes of special temptation, salutary impressions 
from particular afflictions, are all brought to bear on multi- 
tudes of men previous to conversion. These influences 
often work profound and permanent modifications of char- 
acter stopping short of conversion; but their effectiveness 
is due to the influences of the Spirit restraining the coun- 
teracting energies of evil which otherwise would have 
defeated them. Apart from his grace no means would 
prove capable of permanent or efficient results. Without it 
the ominous birds would pick up all the carefully chosen 
and scattered seed. Those gracious influences are not 

3 


34 Girts Tro UNBELIEVERS. 


merely restraining, they are also active im making and re- 
straining the impression. There is nothing in the unmodi- 
fied state of an unregenerate heart to welcome or give 
healthy aid to evangelical truth. So far as such aid is 
given and abiding impressions are made in forming the 
conscience and moulding the judgment of Christian ideas, 
it is due to the influence of the Spirit. As in the communi- 
cation of his saving grace the influence of the truth employed 
must be accompanied by his positive power, it is in accord 
with this analogy to make all other moulding influences de- 
pendent on lesser measures of the same power. There is 
no room to question this from an evangelical point of view. 
This positive influence exerted on unregenerate men under 
gospel training renders it credible, to say the least, that, 
even among the unchristian populations of the world at 
large, the agency of the Spirit, while mainly restrictive, is 
not altogether confined to that species of action. It becomes 
credible, at least, that the moral ideas which became effec- 
tive in shaping the private and public virtues of some pagan 
heroes and other less distinguished individuals of pagan 
society, were aided in producing their effects by some posi- 
tive exertion of divine power and grace. It is evident that 
the afflictions of the great Babylonian prince, Nebuchad- 
nezzar, were so sanctified to him as to profoundly modify 
his views of the God of Israel, if they did not lead to his 
actual conversion. In the case of Cyrus the Great, a man 
raised up to accomplish great special purposes under the 
providence of God, it is most likely that his character was 
moulded by special influences to those virtues which were to 
be so necessary in accomplishing the work assigned him. 
Undoubtedly it would be an error to discount all effective, 
natural influences in the moral discipline of the heathen 
mind. But it is certainly in keeping with the analogy of 
Christian truth, and the necessity of the Spirit to give it 
saving effect, to suppose some similar, though less effective 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. 35 


influences of the same blessed agent to give effect to the 
moral ideas which moulded the virtues of a pagan com- 
munity. If this speculation is true, it is obvious that unbe- 
levers do receive gifts of the Holy Spirit, stopping short of 
regeneration, which are, nevertheless, of great value, and 
that these gifts are something more than merely salutary 
restraints. They are positive grants, which exert a com- 
manding influence in the development and maintenance of 
the virtues which secure the private happiness and the pub- 
lic usefulness of a heathen community. 

The notion that the zntedlectwal achievements of the great 
pagan minds, the philosophy of Socrates, or the poetry of 
Homer, are to be attributed, as much as their moral virtues, 
to the secret influences of the Holy Spirit, is not so clear or 
eredible. Doubtless these great intellectual works are indi- 
rectly attributable to his restraining power; for had the 
depravity in these great men, as in all other men, been 
allowed to work out without restraint along the lines of sin’s 
inevitable tendency, the great lights of their immortal genius 
would never have shone out on the track of the advancing 
ages. But that their great intellectual work was positively 
due to any positive grants of the Spirit, is another and a less 
credible thing. There is no evidence to prove it. It would, 
in fact, be an injury to the doctrine of the obligations of an 
ungodly world to the grace of the Holy Ghost to discount 
all real and effective energy in the gifts of the Creator in the 
sphere of nature. All gifts of body, mind, and heart are 
from him, acting in the sphere of creation, and to him is due 
the praise and gratitude for giving such valuable gifts; but 
the praise is due to him as Creator, and to ascribe the 
efficiency of these gifts to a secret divine influence in the 
sphere of grace is to discount his glory in the sphere of 
nature. ‘There is real intrinsic efficiency in the physical and 
intellectual gifts bestowed by the Creator. But this is only 
true of the physical and intellectual divisions of his creative 


36 Girrs to UNBELIEVERS. 


work, and only true of them in part; for both of them have 
been grievously injured by the moral decadence of human 
nature. In the moral sphere it is different, for the obvious 
reason that in the moral sphere man has destroyed his origi- 
nal endowments for perfect moral action, and needs the in- 
terposition of the power that gave them to restore them 
again. But his physical and intellectual endowments, though 
sreatly injured by the ruin of his moral and spiritual gifts, 
have not been destroyed altogether, and may, therefore, be 
fairly credited with the praise they may deserve. Homer, 
as a great intellect, reflects praise on the being who created 
him. Homer, as a transgressor of law, is indebted to the 
grace of the Holy Spirit for so restraining the natural ten- 
dencies of the sin that was in him as to give free play to his 
glorious genius. 

8. There is something inexpressibly grand and heart-mov- 
ing in the conception of the work of the Spirit of God in 
this strange world. It is a scene in which evil is everywhere 
intermingled with good, and good with evil. This condition 
of things is altogether anomalous, and indicates a very pecu- 
liar operation in the causes that produce and account for it. 
On the regular principles of moral government, the violation 
of law is at once followed by the stroke of its penalties, and 
the scene presented is a scene of unqualified misery. But 
when actual good appears intermingled with evil in an ad- 
mitted scene of violated law, it indicates the introduction of 
another cause, and a peculiar modification of the regular ad- 
ministration of a moral government. The Scriptures explain 
it by the revelation of the wonderful purpose of God to save 
sinners, to dispute the dominion of the fallen world with the 
powers of darkness. To carry out this strange conception, 
the scene of revolt has been placed under the regulation of 
grace, as well as under the operation of law. Hence the 
chequered scene of human existence. The evils which pre- 
vail are due to the violation of law, and all the good that 


~ ee, ple 


J 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. ot 


prevails is due to the operation of grace. Hence the strange 
anomalies of disease and health, death and life, joy and grief. 
Hence the still stronger anomaly of pleasures in sin, and 
sinners having more than heart can wish. Hence the para- 
dox of joy in tribulation, of the righteous in trouble, the 
faithful servants of the revealed will of God perplexed, but 
not in despair, cast down, but not destroyed, persecuted, but 
not forsaken. Hence many a blessing bestowed on those 
who abuse them, long years of prosperity given to the un- 
godly and the ungrateful. Hence the strangest anomaly of 
all, of high but qualified private and public virtues, respect, 
ability, and just claims to esteem, in beings whose hearts are 
alienated from God, in whose natures the power of sin is en- 
trenched with an energy which no force can dislodge except 
the power of God himself. To support this conflict of the 
‘good against the evil is the purpose and work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

As the dispute between the contending elements is literally 
co-extensive with the race, and as the objects of the disputed 
supremacy are literally every object of human pursuit, the 
benignant influences of the blessed agent of the divine good- 
ness extend literally over the whole extent of the human 
race. He guards the happiness of families, and the peace 
of communities. He keeps his hand on all the sources of 
human well-being. In the cottages of the poor, in the halls 
of the rich, in the tents of the wandering nomad, in the 
homes of the refined, in the wigwam of the savage, in the 
palaces of the great, wherever any measure or degree of 
sood affections are found qualifying the universal intrusion 
of evil, there the traces of his benignant restraints and posi- 
tive helps to what is good are to be found. He thus quali- 
fies the policies of governments in peace and war, according 
to his own sovereign good pleasure, softening the rough 
usages of military conflict with the gentle influences of 
humanity, and throwing the regards of melting sympathy over 


38 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the sufferings and deficiencies of the poor in peace. What- 
ever advance in science and the arts of invention can be 
turned to the good of the human family are more or less 
directly due to his goodness. It is not unreasonable or un- 7 
scriptural to suppose that in all the discoveries which have 
increased the supplies of human food, in the enlarged trans- 
portation which has made them available to millions of the 
poor in distant quarters of the earth, in the discovery of 
remedies for disease, in all the inventions that tend to elevate 
and improve the condition of human life, that his hand has 
been somewhere concerned. 

It is altogether probable that the great supporter of the 
good, in its conflict with the evil, will aid in everything 
which can contribute to the increased power and the final 
supremacy of the cause which he champions. Then under 
the institutions of the gospel, through which his main work 
is to be done, his mighty energies are incessantly employed. 
He sustains and invigorates the spiritual life of every be- 
jiever. He secures the kind of prayer that conditions the 
life-giving power. He secures the right knowledge and 
proclamation of the truth. He checks the spread of errors 
in doctrine and practice in the church according to his own 
wise will. He maintains the godly example of the saints, and 
the spread of the kingdom over the earth. All this reveals 
one vast department of his work. He applies the truth to 
the hearts and consciences of the ungodly. He restrains 
and overcomes the subtle influences that impede their return 
to their allegiance. He regulates the views and feelings 
which tend to lead to permanent reconciliation. He effect- 
aally awakens the dull sleepers to their danger, and con- 
vinces them sufficiently of their sin to make them seek with 
all their heart for the way of salvation. He executes that 
final crowning wonder, the raising of a dead soul to life, and 
then takes up his abode within to complete the purification 
he has begun. Here his gifts to the unbeliever cease, and 


RESTRAINT OF DEPRAVITY, ETC. ° og 


his gifts to the believer begin. All this discloses another 
grand department of his work. Brooding unceasingly over 
the lost world, entering with more or less energy, with more 
or less permanence into every lost soul, ruling the depraved 
millions of its inhabitants, guiding its progress, concerned 
about all that affects its well-being, this subject of the gifts 
of the Holy Spirit to unbelieving and rebel men expands 
our conceptions of the divine benignity, until we feel that 
the enterprise is worthy of the infinite and loving character 
of the Lord God Almighty. 

This wonderful encounter of grace with sin is peculiar to 
this world. The King is busy in hell, dealing with the felons 
of the abyss; hopeless of good to them, he deals with their 
sin only to execute justice. Busy in heaven in raising the 
saved sinners along an endless scale of elevation, he has 
there no sin to encounter. But on earth he is busy with sin 
and misery to deliver from both; he is here working out an 
enterprise which will crown the long series of his glorious 
works with the most splendid of them all; an enterprise in 
which grace, the sweetest modification of infinite love, shall 
win the loftiest trophy of all his infinite excellences. What 
are called the “common operations” of the Holy Ghost are 
embraced in these incessant and universal movements to re- 
strain the sin of the world, and to bring those sinners who 
are favored with gospel ordinances to lay hold on eternal 
life. These effects on the ungodly under gospel influences 
are indicated by periods of thoughtfulness about the issues 
of human existence, by restlessness of conscience, by sensi- 
bility to the appeals of the truth and providences of God, by 
half-formed resolutions to repent, and by the earlier motions 
of the soul in awakening and conviction. The operations of 
the Spirit, of which we have spoken as wrought over the 
whole human race in the restraint of sin and in the develop- 
ment of such relative good as may be found, are truly his 
common operations. The value of them cannot be ade- 


40) GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


quately apprehended. If they were altogether suspended, 
even for the briefest period of time, the consequences would 
be fearful. All that is good in this life and earthly sphere, 
and all that is promising of more immeasurable good in pre- 
paring a lost immortal to receive the gospel and to become 
an heir of everlasting life, is due to the vast, rich gifts of the 
Holy Spirit to unbelieving and disobedient men. 


GHA Bia Ere bls 
AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 


‘(WHEREFORE he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”— Paul to the Hphesians. 


HE relations of the Holy Spirit to the unconverted, in 

the administration of the covenant of grace, are of 
inexpressible importance. It is his function to reprove 
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; and 
until he does this work there is no prospect of salvation. 
This preliminary work of grace is generally divided into two 
classifications, which, although in some aspects of the case 
interlocked with each other, present differences sufficiently 
marked to justify the distinct classification employed in de- 
lineating them. One of these embraces what are called the 
awakening influences of the Holy Spirit, and the other, the 
convicting influences of the same gracious agent. There are 
two forms of conviction of sin, one previous to conversion, 
and the other subsequent to it. With the first of these, 
awakening is always and closely connected, so that it is not 
easy to consider them apart, even in thought. Awakening 
has its chief reference to the danger which sin has entailed; 
but this cause of the danger necessarily comes under view in 
considering the danger itself. The awakening, then, is really 
an awakening to sin as well as to danger, although the refer- 
ence to sin is secondary to the apprehension of the peril it 
has induced. This apprehension of both may exist on a 
wide scale of degree’, from mere uneasiness to a tragic in- 
tensity of feeling; but in all its degrees it is the result of 
those awakening and partially convictive influences of the 
Holy Ghost which precede regeneration. Leaving any fur- 

41 


42, Gifts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


ther attempt to draw the distinction between the apprehen- 
sion of sin which does not lead to salvation and that which 
does, at the present, we design to call attention to the state 
of the human mind which makes an awakening necessary as 
a preliminary process in the work of grace. 

The Scripture accounts of the mental states of a soul born 
under the existing conditions of human nature in this world 
describe them in strange terms, as “asleep,” “blind,” “un- 
conscious,” and in still stranger terms, as ‘‘ dead,” ‘ dead in 
trespasses and sins,” and ‘needing to rise from the dead.” 
Still more strangely, they are commanded and exhorted “to 
rise from the dead,” and to awaken themselves in the very 
srasp of their deadly sleep. The strangeness of these terms 
is partly due to, and at the same time partly explained by, 
the unquestionable fact that these dead and sleeping souls 
are alive, intelligent, active, full of curiosity, full of strong 
passions, energetic, resolute, and wide awake to all the de- 
mands of the present life. In the face of such a fact, the 
sleep and the deadness must have reference to some peculiar 
insensibility and incapacity of action which is entirely con- 
sistent because co-existent with this acknowledged activity 
It must refer to a particular disability in a certain direction 
and towards a particular object. Such a partial and particu- 
lar mental disablement may be compatible with activity to- 
wards certain other objects. This is a condition of things 
not at all uncommon ‘There are many things which are 
true, and known to be true, which excite the strongest in- 
terest of some minds and never enter the thoughts nor 
awaken the smallest concern in others. The common laborer 
passes by a hundred weeds and wild flowers without any- 
thing more than a bare recognition of their presence and 
their obtrusive qualities, without any ethought of the won- 
derful mysteries that are involved in them. To these he is 
blind or dead. Everything that exists is full of hidden sig- 
nificances which never excite a thought, and to which many 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 43 


an active and energetic mind is as dead and insensible as if 
there was no subject of discovery or thought involved. A 
man may be color blind, and at the same time possess a very 
active and intelligent understanding. But under that singu- 
lar disability, with all his mental activity he is as completely 
dead to all the glories of color as if no splendor of hue was 
incorporated in the works of nature. These instances show 
us that the paradox is, notwithstanding the appearance of 
contradiction, true in fact; that the view may be perceptive 
and yet insensible, and, therefore, it is altogether possible 
for a man to be intellectually intelligent and yet spiritually 
blind; that he may be active in some things yet dead in 
others; that he may know many a fact, and yet be utterly 
insensible to the real significance and force of the fact. If, 
now, this insensibility is the result of moral causes, the pro- 
duct of sin, the datum of a depraved state of the faculties 
which condition responsibility, there is no escaping the con- 
clusion that man is justly accountable for the spiritual death 
that isin him. This is the general scope of the Scripture 
doctrine about the s/eep and death of a sinful soul. It refers 
to a certain insensibility which co-exists with every, even the 
highest, degree of mental energy, and is found in every soul 
of the human race without exception. It isa natural trait in 
every fallen moral agent. It does not assert that man has 
not and cannot have any idea of God at all, but that he has 
no just conception of what he is. 

In the higher grades of this corrupt and misguiding influ- 
ence, the very idea of God may become obscured and oblit- 
erated. Nay, the understanding, under a correct education, 
may form the conceptions of the divine attributes intellec- 
tually just, but no process of mere culture can unveil the real 
quality of those attributes, and render them agreeable to the 
affections of an unrenewed heart. A man may know that 
God is just, and have a grave and deep conviction of the 
essential value of such a quality in the Governor of the uni- 


44 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


verse; and yet that very quality may make him uneasy, and 
excite his fears instead of his affections, under the conscious- 
ness of his own sin. If he saw God as he is, he would de- 
light in his glorious qualities; he would love him. But an 
unholy heart perverts his discernment, and he remains blind 
and dead to the real character of God. Nor does this doc- 
trine of spiritual blindness mean that man has no ideas, and 
even correct conceptions, as far as they go, of the law and 
the government of God ;- but it means that feelings and affec- 
tions, alienated from holiness, obscure to his view the real 
quality and excellence of those two grand expressions of the 
divine nature. If he was not blind to them, he would love 
them. The Bible doctrine of the spiritual slumber and the 
spiritual death of a fallen soul affirms a similar effect of in- 
sensibility to the real force and significance of all the grand 
facts and doctrines of man’s spiritual condition. Some of 
these are discovered in the Bible; some of them lie in the 
open sphere of experience and consciousness; yet all are 
more or less oppressed and sunk out of view by the same 
deadly state of the mind as colored by the carnal heart. 
Take the melancholy conditions of human existence in this 
world, death and the uncertain terure of life. No man is 
more certain that he lives than he is that he will die. 
Nothing is more sure than the uncertainty of life. Yet prac- 
tically, these facts make little or no impression on the masses 
of mankind; the mind is dead to them. In like manner, the 
disquiet of conscience, and the consciousness of habitual 
wrong-doing, are recognized and disabled of their genuine 
weight and impressiveness. The sense of accountability is 
similarly disabled and deadened. All the great doctrines of 
the Christian faith are thus disabled in millions of minds 
which have never had or harbored a doubt of their truth. 
The facts in human nature and in human life, as well as the 
doctrines of religion, are so apprehended that the mind re- 
mains as insensible to their real force and meaning as if it 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 45 


were rendered insensible by death or deep sleep. This in- 
sensibility remains in the natural mind even when the recogni- 
tion of them in their purely intellectual aspects may lead to 
very active religious service, to the building of churches, to 
the support of a costly religious ritual, and to the fierce pol- 
emic defence of religious dogmas. The real difficulty is not 
removed, the blindness and the deadness remain, until the 
Holy Spirit begins his marvelous work. 

2. The awakening of the Spirit is just the breaking up of 
this insensibility to a certain extent. It is not regeneration, 
which is the actual giving of life, a passing from death to 
life. It is a restoration of sensibility within the bounds of 
that natural energy of the intellect, heart, and conscience 
which we have seen to co-exist with the spiritual death and 
sleep induced by sin. It stops short of spiritual life. The 
understanding is quickened to apprehend something more of 
the facts than it ever did before, though not to the full com- 
prehension of them. The conscience is quickened to feel 
more of what is involved in the facts, yet under the same 
limitation. The heart is correspondingly affected. No new 
truth is revealed to the understanding, but new and more 
just views of old ideas are introduced, though still short of 
what is necessary to be known; and instead of the absolute 
want, or of a totally insufficient degree of feeling suitable to 
the facts, some approximately suitable feeling is awakened, 
though not yet altogether suitable. Awakening and convic- 
tion are generally treated together, and this is altogether 
proper in reference to that species of conviction which pre- 
cedes conversion, because there is a most intimate relation 
between them, and they generally, in greater or less degree, 
appear in the consciousness at the same time. But there is 
a marked difference between awakening and that species of 
conviction which accompanies, or, more accurately, flows 
from conversion. Awakening, and the conviction which gen- 
erally attends it, is not saving; many a soul has been awak- 


46 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


ened and made subject to mere natural convictions of guilt, 
and thus aroused to intense anxiety and active effort to ob- 
tain deliverance, and yet has again subsided into utter un- 
concern. <A partial or imperfect, or, as we have called it, 
natural conviction of guilt, differs from that full or perfect. 
conviction of sin which always leads to genuine repentance, 
and thus to safety. This difference will be more fully devel- 
oped hereafter; for the present we note one or two of the 
leading distinctions. 

There is such a thing as a natural conviction of sin, and 
although dependent more or less on the common operations _ 
of the Spirit, appears frequently on the commission of the 
higher crimes, especiaily in the early career of a criminal. A 
detected thief or adulterer feels guilty. A murderer often 
feels keenly the guilt of his bloody deed; conscience protests 
with stern fidelity, and the sense of guilt provokes the feel- 
ing of remorse, and often a bitter wish that the deed had not 
been done. This conviction yields a species of repentance, 
the sorrow of the world that worketh death. Its leading — 
ear-marks are that it is altogether selfish; it is confined to | 
one or two criminal actions; it is strongly qualified by the 
fear of detection; it is greatly intensified: by detection; it is 
disposed to self-defence or self-justification, and 1t only pro- 
duces a limited reform of conduct when occasion allows. 
True and full conviction stands opposed to mere natural 
conviction on these and on several others. 

Now, this natural conviction of sin is generally, though not 
always, in the earlier stages of awakening, associated with 
that state of the mind. Awakening is the break-up, in a 
varying scale of degrees in the energy of the feeling, of that 
stupor and insensibility to spiritual things which is one of 
the distinguishing traits of the carnal mind, and its main 
reference is ¢o the peril in which the discovery of those spir- 
itual things has involved the soul. The justice of this expo- 
sure to danger is not considered, or, if recognized at all, is so 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 47 


faintly recognized as to be thrust far into the background. 
The fact of exposure and the apprehension of danger consti- 
tute the leading characteristics of the awakening of the Holy 
Ghost. The mind becomes alive to the reality and solemnity 
of death and the uncertain tenure of life; to the claims of 
Almighty God, which have been hitherto neglected and for- 
gotten ; to the accountability the soul is to meet, and to the 
great doctrines of the word of God about the peril of unpar- 
doned sin and the way of salvation. These facts begin to 
reveal something of the power that isin them. They all hint 
of danger. It is conceivable that this quickened sense of 
spiritual realities might exist in the mind without any spe- 
cial movement of the sense of personal guilt in natural con- 
viction. It may exist for a time, a brief time, as a mere be- 
coming sensible of this species of realities, without considera- 
tion of personal guilt; and this fact will justify the distine- 
tion between awakening and that natural conviction with 
which it is always associated ultimately. The severance is 

never long and not always apparent; the sense of danger 
roused by awakening speedily connects itself with its cause ; 
that appears in the consciousness of sin ; and thus awaken- 
ing and natural conviction soon become merged in the con- 
sciousness. Neither element in this joint apprehension of 
spiritual realities and the consciousness of sin can lead to 
any saving result by themselves. They breed remorse, but 
stop short of repentance ; they breed the sorrow of the world 
that worketh death, but not the godly sorrow that worketh 
repentance unto life. The mere presentment of spiritual 
facts in life-like, real form before the mind, and the sense of 
personal peril, which are the distinctive features of mere 
awakening, have no virtue in themselves; they are valuable 
in view of that to which they lead. Mere natural conviction 
of personal guilt lays no ground to warrant escape from it. 
Consequently, all conviction of sin previous to conversion is 
defective, and its results are defective. It is true as far as it 


48 GiIFrts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


goes, but it does not go far enough ; it discloses a part of the 
case, but not the whole of it. If shows the danger and the 
criminality of sin to a certain extent, but not enough to alter 
the tastes and affections of the heart towards it, and there- 
fore stops short of repentance and pardon. Natural convie- 
tion, even as far as it recognizes the guilt of a sin, as in the 
case of a detected liar or thief, looks mainly to the peril in- 
volved ; and if the danger were removed, the consciousness 
of the criminality would be greatly qualified, though not, in 
all cases, entirely removed. It is strongly colored by the 
datum of awakening, which is a sense of danger. This illus- 
trates the propriety of treating awakening and natural con- 
viction together ; they are not only generally found in prox- 
imity in the consciousness, but are generally intermixed to- 
gether. 

As our attention is now limited to the study of awakening 
by the Spirit, we remit all consideration of a full conviction 
in its contrast with natural conviction, and for the present 
look only to the characteristics of the awakening produced 
by the Holy Ghost. 

3. The first thing we note about this peculiar state of the 


mind is, that it does not create, but only reveals, the perilous. 


and painful facts in this strange world, and in the conditions 
of existence in its strange denizen, man. The history of 
every individual human being, comprehending the end with 
the intervening hazards and events of his life, is a tragedy. 
The aggregate history of the race needs a new term of terror 
to express it. Born in an agony, man universally lives in 
danger of a thousand perils, and finally sinks a victim to the 
most terrible of them all. The passing joys that are inter- 
spersed with these overshadowing evils, the pleasant days, 
the delights of home and gratified affections, the triumphs 
of human genius and energy, the sports of the field, the 
delights of art, the profits of knowledge, the accumulations 
and enjoyments of wealth, disguise to the thoughtless mind 


ie 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 49 


the never-shifting eternal cloud of woe and death that over- 
hangs the awful scene. The pathos and terror of a world in 
which evil reigns with such universal and tragic supremacy, 
never seems to pierce the veil of hallucination which covers 
the ordinary mind. A few grim thinkers have cut through 
the shams; and the vision, unchecked by the palliations of 
gospel hope, has withered them into lunatics or devils. Man 
himself is the most awful and pathetic object on the accursed 
planet. A body subject to disease, pain and death; a mind 
enfeebled by ignorance and distorted by prejudice; a heart 
full of depraved impulses, disordered affections, and ill-regu- 
lated passions; his relations to others fountains of possible 
evil as well as good, he stands a most pathetic and awful 
figure. Then, as the lights of divine revelation are poured 
upon them, the colors of the picture are immeasurably 
heightened. Accountable for every breach of the divine law 
which he is constantly violating; already condemned; the 
slave of sin, led captive by a fearful hierarchy of fallen 
angels; already under the penal claims of violated law; with 
an essential immortality in his spirit holding him to an 
endless duration of these conditions, he is emphatically a lost 
soul! No wonder he shrinks from any open vision of such 
a state! ‘To see it in its full force would bankrupt human 
reason and fill the air all round the whole earth with threnes 
of despair. God is merciful in holding back the vision of 
the facts from its full impression. 

But that utter forgetfulness and ignoring of all recognition 
whatever of these awful realities, as they concern the indi- 
vidual self, is fraught with the immeasurable woe of barring 
all escape out of the terrible ruin, and subjecting the lost 
transegressor to the greater ultimate hazards of his position. 
Hence he needs to be awakened; he needs the awakening of 
that Holy Spirit who is able to temper his cognition of the 
awful ruin into safe conditions. He can show enough of it 
fO rouse up a suitable and enduring effort to escape, and at 

4 


50 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


the same time prevent it from going into a dangerous excess. 
There is a large class of minds which deprecates any lifting 
of the veil which obscures the ruin and curse on the world. 
They openly blame the religious system and its followers 
which seeks wisely to disturb this fatal insensibility in order 
to remedy it. This deprecation wonld be wise but for two 
things: if there was no remedy, no escape for the individual 
from under the curse; and if there was no necessity to break 
up his slumber in order to secure this remedy, then it would 
be both wise and kind not to disturb his insensibility. It 
should be distinctly noted by these benevolent friends of 
human peace, that the conditions which vacate their argu- 
ment do exist. Let it also be distinctly apprehended that 
the awakening influence, needful to rouse up the needful 
effort to escape, does not create the evils which it reveals. 
Those evils would remain exactly the same if no notice 
should ever be taken of them. Death and sin, the perils of 
life, and human accountability, do not depend for their 
reality or their awfulness on talking about them. The talk 
does not create them; they are facts in the life and nature of 
man, grave and perilous realities, which cannot: be extin- 
guished by shutting the eyes and refusing to recognize their 
existence. As admitted, if no good could come out of an 
awakening to the facts, then there would be no use and only 
needless mischief in any breach of his dull peace. But if 
there is good to be done by it; if deliverance is conditioned 
upon it, then both the necessity and the kindness of rousing 
the endangered sleeper is obvious enough. To refuse to at- 
tempt to awaken him under these conditions would involve a 
guilty participation in his coming destruction. The unbe- 
liever who censures all attempts to rouse sinners to repent- 
ance cannot justly lay blame on the servants of Christ as 
creating needless anxieties and alarms The peril is in the 
facts, and not in the talk about them, and the object of the 


endeavor is to secure escape and compliance with the mex- 


orable condition of making it. 


i 
fh 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 51 


4, The next thing to be noted in this awakening is, that it 
is due to the influence of the Holy Spirit. The tendency of 
sin is always in one direction—to work out all its natural 
effects. with a swift and cumulative effect. Any arrest on any 
one of these tendencies shows the presence of a restraining 
power. Any remnant of good moral energy, then, left in the 
intuitions of the understanding or the feelings of the heart 
shows the presence of this restraining power. Without this, 
the blinding and hardening influence of sin would have long 
ago worked out its natural results in the utter extinction of 
all good moral energies of every sort in a fallen soul. This 
effect has been seen in some of the extreme barbarous tribes 
of the human race. ‘To inflict his judicial curse, then, on in- 
corrigible offenders, God has only to withdraw this restrain- 
ing influence, and sin will swiftly work out its natural effects. 
It is by this process of withdrawal that God is said “to give 
the spirit of slumber,” “‘to blind the eyes, and harden the 
heart.” Any reversal of the spirit of slumber, then, must be 
_ due to the reverse action of the same agent, the. Holy Spirit. 
That he is the agent by whom the conviction of sin is wrought 
is asserted in so many words; and as he is the universal 
agent of all gracious effects on the soul, to him is to be at- 
tributed all the effects of awakening and natural conviction. 
This truth is illustrated in the experience of men. The spir- 
itual realities of human life are indisputable facts. But 
though sin, death, and moral accountability are facts con- 
fessed, they are facts very imperfectly apprehended, and very 
insufficiently allowed their legitimate influence in the con- 
duct of life. They are admitted, but not realized; they are, 
with studied intent, held in the background; they are re- 
pelled when they intrude into the mind in their personal 
bearings. So complete is the effect in many cases that death, 
_ although one of the most unquestionable and universal inci- 
dents of every human existence, is positively and completely 
eliminated out of all the thoughts. It is not recognized at 


52 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


all in these cases. An actual instance of the mysterious and 
dreadful mischief in some one else, especially in one nearly 
related, may excite a momentary remembrance of one’s own 
mortality; but it soon passes, and the false lights of an as- 
sumed exemption from the fatal law of human nature again 
fall on the field of view. In the majority of cases this ex- 
treme insensibility does not prevail, but a scarcely less fatal 
degree of it is literally universal. 

Death and sin are sometimes recognized, but they are at 
once ordered to retire. Their legitimate and natural ten- 
dency to turn the thoughts upon a serious canvas of any 
possible remedy is so promptly and powerfully repelled that 
they soon depart, and leave the soul to drift. No mere didac- 
tic or personal influence can hope to contend with the 
mighty impulse to silence consideration of these inevitable 
and painful incidents. Unless some effectual foreign or out- 
side influence can be brought to bear, the repulse will be 
complete, and no thought, no feeling, no care would ever en- 
ter the mind; and the man would live insensible, and die just 
as if he were flung from a precipice a thousand feet into a 
midnight sea, when locked fast in a natural or artificial sleep. 
Besides this dread of death, sin is a species of evil which 
involves positive criminality and guilt. Consequently, every 
man flinches from the actual knowledge and realization of 
sin as eagerly as he does from death itself. He would as 
soon meet a sheeted ghost, fresh from the realms of shadows, 
as confront his own sin, unveiled in the full awfulness of its 
criminal nature. Conscience, roused up to do its office of 
accuser, treads the trembling soul, like the angel with the 


trumpet of the judgment treads the trembling skies. No 


wonder the heart unacquainted with any other refuge cries 
out to be allowed to forget, and seeks eagerly to sink into 
sleep. He must exorcise these dreadful visions of sin and 
guilt. In the same manner, and on the same broad ground 
of conscious exposure, he shrinks from the thought of God, 


f. 


“, 
= 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 53 


from his revealed character, and from the essential and unal- 
terable nature of his relations to all intelligent and respon- 
sible creatures. The conception of a being infinitely holy, 
inflexibly just, sitting on the place of universal dominion 
administering law, with a perfect knowledge of the facts in 
every individual case, with absolute integrity to uphold the 
right and to condemn the wrong, hating all evil with infinite 
intensity, such a conception is overpowering. Sleep and 
utter insensibility are the chosen refuge of a soul conscious 
of personal peril under such an administration. Yet further, 
sin has a blinding and deadening influence on mind and 
heart, and this natural effect, combined with the intense vol- 
untary and personal effort to extinguish all sensibility to the 
alarming facts, result in such a state of mind that no power 
in the mind itself could overcome it. A power from without 
must interfere; and the only power competent to control a 
resistance so powerful is the power of God himself. 

Hence the Scripture doctrine of the awakening influences 
of the Holy Ghost. If he did not interpose, no motion. of 
regard to its spiritual condition would ever cross the sur- 
face of the sin-deadened soul. It would live on, keenly 
alive to the transitory interests of this life, but dead as a 
stone to ali the higher relations which bind an immortal 
being, and point him to a state of existence beyond this 
present scene. The absolute nature of the dependence on 
the Spirit is demonstrated by the phenomena of his occa- 
sional and intermittent interpositions. He sometimes works 
in this way, he comes and goes. The movement of the 
affected human spirit exactly corresponds. When the Spirit 
strives, the soul wakes out of its deadly slumber. As he 
quickens the apprehension of death and sin, God, and im- 
mortality, the awakened soul fears and trembles. But, alas! 
the inevitable combat with the Holy Ghost at once ensues, 
and he yields the ground; he suspends his influence; he 
takes his departure. Immediately the deep sleep returus, 


54 GIFTS To UNBELIEVERS. 


and the awakened soul is at ease once more. Again the 
Spirit returns, and again the sinner awakes; again he retires, 
and the sinner slumbers again. When, in his sovereign 
good pleasure, the blessed giver of life resolves to win the 
struggle, his influence is not remitted; it becomes steady, 
constant, more and more powerful and pointed. The cor- 
responding effects are seen in the soul; it awakes and keeps 
awake; it yields more and more to the demands of the 
Spirit; it conforms more and more to the leadings of his 
influence, until the actual work of giving life is accomplished, 
and the soul passes permanently out of the grasp of sleep 
and death. The Holy Ghost alone can awaken any sinner 
out of his fatal security. 

5. Another peculiarity is to be found in the awakening of 
the Spirit: there are various degrees in the energy of his 
awakening influence. The range of these variations is wide, 
extending through every grade of feeling, from a calm state 
of sincere and settled sensibility to the grand facts in the 
condition of an unpardoned soul, up to an unbearable mea- 
sure of mental distress. It not unfrequently happens that 
persons discount the reality and sufficiency of their mental 
exercises, as being so completely out of proportion to the 
evils of their condition. Their judgments tell them these 
evils are very great, and that any suitable sensibility to 
them must involve much stronger emotions than they are 
conscious of feeling; and therefore they discount the suflici- 
ency of their exercises of mind. But this is often a mistake 
in experience; it is always erroneous in theory. It is 
frequently the case that these calmer views are more effective, 
and produce far more valuable results, than states of feeling 
far more poignant and powerful. The question is, do these 
calm states of feeling lead to action, to a calm but steadfast 
effort to find the way of peace. The test of all degrees of 
awakened sensibility is in the abiding results they produce. 


AWAKENING INFLUENCE. 55 


€ 


The calmer apprehension often leads to obedience to the 
drawings of the Holy Spirit, and to the full acceptance of the 
gospel offers, while the keener feeling wears out and leaves 
no permanent result behind it. A calm, steady apprehension 
of the evils in the human lot, which leads to full compliance 
with the terms on which God has promised to forgive, is 
generally, in point of fact, the prevailing experience ; the more 
intense realization is the exception rather than the rule. 
The value of both is in the effects they cause. None need 
depreciate the exercises of their minds because they are 
moderate in degree and sensibly out of proportion to the 
evils which occasion them. If they lead steadily forward to 
the feet of the Saviour, they are serving their purpose, and 
do not deserve to be depreciated as useless. 

6. The resistance which is invariably made to the benevo- 
lent and most merciful awakening of the Holy Ghost is un- 
srateful and unwise to a degree which defies any adequate 
description. It is natural enough for men to shrink from 
_ what will give them pain, either of body or mind; but for all 
that, it is often absolute madness for them to do it. The 
operations of surgery give pain, but they are often necessary 
to save life. If a skilled surgeon, in the kindness of his 
heart, offers to do what is essential to life, it is ingratitude, 
as well as folly, to shrink from the suffering and to refuse his 
offer. There is no royal road to repentance ; sin is an evil, 
and to know sin is to discern the evil that is in it. The 
sreat enemy of God and man has a tremendous advantage in 
this natural aversion to suffering, when he would persuade 
sinners to sleep on now and take their ease. They have 
only to do this to accomplish his ends. There is a startling 
warning in the fact that God only can awaken sinners to any 
effective purpose. All that he need do to bring them to the 
retribution of their sin is just to let them alone; it is just to 
co-operate with themselves in their own policy and effort to 


56 _ Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


ha 
' 


sleep in peace. He need do nothing positive; he has only : 
to restrain his effort to awaken them, only to allow them — 
their own way. There is boundless mercy in his awakening 
srace. This grace is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to 
unbelievers, the value of which cannot be fully compa 


hended. a 


@ Bese Pilea: 
CONVICTING INFLUENCE. 


‘‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of right- 
eousness, and of judgment.”—John in his Gospel. 


vs HERE are shades of difference in the meaning of 
the words used to express the idea of conviction of 

sin, but the general notion conveyed by them is the same. 
They all carry the idea of sin charged, proved, apprehended, 
and acknowledged, at least in the secret thoughts of the 
transgressor. To “reprove” is to charge a fault, and to 
rebuke for it. To “convince” is to persuade and satisfy 
touching the truth of a thing, whether good or bad. To 
“convict” always implies that the thing charged and proved 
igs a wrong thing. Applied to sin, to convince, or to convict of 
sin mean exactly the same; but inasmuch as the word con- 
vince may be applied to things good-as well as evil, it 1s 
better to use the word convict in connection with sin, because 
it carries the notion of something wrong or erroneous. To 
convict of sin not only means that the fact is proved, but 
that the wrong in the fact is also revealed, and the trans- 
gressor is discovered. No one is convicted of sin unless he 
is satisfied that the fact is true, that it involves wrong, and 
that he himself is truly charged with it. This is equally, 
though in different manners, true of natural and saving con- 
viction of sin. A detected liar or thief recognizes that the 
fact of his crime is true; that it involves guilt, and that he 
has committed it. True and full conviction of sin involves 
the recognition of each of these incidents, but with marked 
differences in the method of the recognition, which can be 
more effectively brought out by a detailed contrast than by 

57 


58 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


a single definition. These intuitions are certified by che 
feeling they produce. 

2. The basis of all conviction of sin is the law of God. 
“Sin is the transgression of the law,” and consequently “by 
the law is the knowledge of sin.” It is only when we know 
the law that it is possible to discover what is the violation of 
it. We must know what the law actually prescribes or pro- 
hibits, that we may tell what is a violation of law as a matter 
of fact. We must understand the nature of the requirements 
of the law, whether they are reasonable and right, or unrea- 
sonable and wrong, before we can estimate the real nature of 
a violation of it as right or wrong. We must understand the 
extent of the law, as reaching only to the outward conduct, or 
as embracing the thoughts, feelings, and motives of the 
inward fountain of moral energy, before we can estimate the 
extent of violations of it. If the law only prescribes duties 
to man, sin can only be against man. If it prescribes duties 
to God, sin will be discovered as against God. This makes 
clear the saying, ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.” 

There is another feature in the law besides its prescriptions, 
it is enforced by a penalty. Penalty is of the essence of all 
law; without a power to enforce them, its precepts cease to be 
daw and sink into advice. Authority is the right to give 
law; but without power to enforce, authority is rendered en- 
tirely nugatory. Penalty is essential to enforce law, to sus- 
tain authority, and to preserve the very nature of law from 
decay. It is very obvious that these two elements of law— 
precept and penalty, prescription and power—give room 
for two very different kinds of consideration in looking at 
the law from the ground of a violation of it. The trans- 
gressor cannot avoid some consideration of both of its essen- 
tial elements, but they may be very differently regarded in 
the view taken. If he looks mainly at the nature of the par- 
ticular precept he has broken, he will be more impressed 
with the nature of his sin, with the injustice involved in the 


ConvICTING INFLUENCE. 59 


violation of a just requirement, or the unreasonableness of a 
violation of a reasonable requirement. His reference to the 
penalty will be subordinate to his reference to the precept he 
has broken. On the contrary, if he has the penalty chiefly 
before his eyes, he will be far more concerned for the risk 
he has encountered than for the wrong he has done. He 
must have a certain recognition of the precept in order to 
feel any degree of guilt, such as the detected thief feels; but 
as the penalty is his main concern, he will be far more sensi- 
le of his danger than of his guilt. Itis obvious that the feel- 
ings created by these two varying views of the law—the one 
looking mainly to the precept, and the other to the penalty— 
will have a very different moral value, and will exert very dif- 
ferent effects. The one looks more to the nature of sin, the 
other, toits risks. The one lays the basis for repentance, the 
other, for remorse. The one opens the way for a true con- 
viction of sin, the other, for a mere natural conviction of sin. 
3. Conviction of sin under both of its modes has certain 
generic qualities inhering in both. Both involve an action 
in the understanding. Both produce feeling and affection in 
the heart. Both produce effects on conduct. Both have a 
regard to God as well as to self. Butin all these points they 
are more or less strongly distinguished. They are more at 
one in the nature of the mental energy evoked in producing 
them than in any other point. All conviction of sin is an 
intuitive action of the understanding. The mind simply 
sees the evil opened up toits view. It is an act of the under- 
standing, like that which is put forth when the mind discerns 
colors and forms. When aman sees the green of the grass, 
or the red of the rose, he sees them by a direct intuition or 
act of sight. There is nothing between the mind and the 
object to enable the discernment. Argument and illustration 
may present the character of sin, but fail to enable the intui- 
tion of it. If the mind is so corrupted by vice, it will fail to 
see the wickedness of even a gross crime, and no explana- 


60 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


tion of it will enable the perception of it. The mind has 
been made to see certain things in themselves, and if this in- 
tuitive power has been injured or entirely disabled, the power 
must be restored, or no mere exposition will enable discern- 
ment. Hence the need of the Spirit’s influence in the just 
discernment of sin. In natural conviction the perception of 
criminality in sin is imperfect, but the mental energy is the 
same. In both it is an intuitive act of the understanding ; 
but in the one the power of intuition is injured, and only in 
part, if at all, aided by grace; in the other, the power is so 
far influenced by the Spirit as to see with a degree of just- 
ness and completeness of vision sufficient to work out the de- 
sired effect. Conviction of sin is a simple seeing the guilti- 
ness of sin; in natural conviction, partial and defective ; in 
spiritual conviction, measurably just and full. The man in 
both cases may not be able to tell you why the sin he sees is 
evil, but he sees it to be so. This perception is immediately 
followed by a strong belief that the thing is what the mind 
sees it to be. A man who sees a tree, or the form and color 
of a flower, cannot be persuaded that the tree and the flower 
are not what he sees them to be. This belief and perception 
are followed by a feeling suitable to the thing seen. If a 
man sees a beautiful thing, his perception and belief in it 
are instantly followed by a feeling of pleasure. If the thing 
is evil, the perception will be followed by a feeling of fear or 
dislike. In like manner the conviction of sin will be followed 
by feelings determined by the kind of conviction which pro- 
duces it. . 

Sin has two elements of evil in it corresponding to the two 
grand divisions of the law: the precept and the penalty; its 
criminality and its danger; its intrinsic wrongfulness and its 
mischievous effects. According as the mind of the criminal 
is directed mainly to the one or the other of these will be 
the feeling which will follow it. To see the danger mainly, 
and the badness of sin only partially, is to have an imperfect 


CoNVICTING INFLUENCE. 61 


view of sin, and the feeling that follows will partake of that 
imperfection. To see both elements of the evil in sin in a 
due proportion is to have a view of sin relatively per- 
fect, and the feeling that follows will be qualified accord- 
ingly. : | 
Here, then, is the first point in which the contrast be- 
tween natural and spiritual conviction begins, in the difference 
of the view taken of the nature and the hazard of sin. Natural 
conviction discerns the danger of sin as the chief object of 
its concern, and is, therefore, true as far as it goes. It per- 
ceives the peril of the soul, but has little or no sense of the 
justice of the exposure to it. In this lies one of the leading 
distinctions between it and a spiritual apprehension of sin. 
It has a certain sense of criminality in it, although it looks 
chiefly to the danger involved. But this sense ef criminality 
is not based on a true judgment of the real excellence of the 
law, and consequently is not based on a true discernment of 
the evil nature of sin. It sees very imperfectly, if at all, the 
criminality in the act itself. It sees that the act has been 
prohibited by the law, under peril of consequences, but does 
not see that the law ought to have prohibited it. Conse- 
quently, when the act is committed, he knows he has violat- 
ed the law, and is, therefore, criminal in the eye of the law. 
He feels guilty to this extent. At the very same time he may 
feel that the law was hard and unreasonable in prohibiting 
the act. He is, therefore, disposed to carp at the law. In 
doing this it is evident that he is disposed to defend the act, 
and himself for doing it, in spite of his vague sense of crimi- 
nality. His feeling of criminality is clearly a very limited 
and imperfect thing. He does not see the propriety of the 
law he has broken; on the contrary, he thinks it unreason- 
able. He recognizes that he has broken it; he discerns the 
risks he has encountered, and feels the qualified sense of 
criminality growing out of the fact that he has voluntarily 
broken it, and has brought on himself the hazards involved. 


62 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


Even in the case of the higher crimes, the criminal feels that 
it would be hard to punish him; he is selfish even when con- 
scious of guilt. Even in those rare cases where remorse 
drives a criminal to surrender himself to the law, he is seek- 
ing a selfish relief from a more intolerable evil by surrender- 
ing himself to a lesser one. 

On the contrary, a just and full conviction of sin sees the 
evil in the act itself, as well as the danger it has involved. 
It sees the justice of the peril in the evil of the act. It 
looks to the precept of the law as well as to the penalty. It 
sees the exact propriety and excellence of the violated pre- 
cept. It sees the true personal blameworthiness of the 
person who has voluntarily broken it. It sees the danger, 
but also the badness of the act. It sees the danger is the 
just consequent and the direct effect of this badness. Not 
only the fact, but the righteousness of personal responsibility 
for the criminal deed is clearly discerned. It sees the crimi- 
nality in the act, and not merely in the inhibition of the law. 
Guilt involves two distinct elements: one arising from the 
precept of the law, marking desert of punishment; the other, 
arising from the penalty of the law, marking liability to pun- 
ishment. Genuine or spiritual conviction of sin is chiefly 
concerned about the first; mere natural conviction about 
the last. While a saving conviction of sin is thus chiefly 
discriminated by this element of badness in the act, it must 
not be forgotten that it also apprehends the danger of sin; 
it sees the element of liability in its guilt, as well as the ill- 
desert. It often happens that persons whose claim to the 
character of Christians cannot be disputed are perplexed by 
this distinction, and write hard things against themselves, 
because they are very distinctly conscious of their sensibility 
to the danger of sin, and not so distinctly conscious of their 
discernment of the badness or wickedness of it. But such 
persons ought to keep steadily in mind, that inasmuch as 
true conviction embraces both elements of the evil of sin, it 


CONVICTING INFLUENCE. 63 


embraces the fear of the consequences of sin; and, there- 
fore, the mental exercises of no one are to be discounted as 
fatally defective, because conscious of this fear; it is a part 
of the mental state of which they are suspicious. The ques- 
tion really turns on the matter of fact, whether, in addition 
to this fear, there is also a real discernment of the intrinsic 
badness of sin, no matter how feeble it may be in compari- 
son with the vigor of the fear which is felt. How, then, are 
we to know when we do really see the intrinsic evil of sin? 
It will disclose itself in a variety of ways. 

In the first place, it will be indicated by the absence of all 
disposition or wish to excuse or defend ourselves against the 
charge of sin, or to belittle or extenuate the fault. In true 
conviction, as we have seen, there is an intuition of the in- 
trinsic badness of sin. It recognizes this part of the evil in 
sin, and knowing that it is rightfully charged against self, 
the sense of personal culpability at once springs up, and 
silences all pleas in abatement. The intrinsic nature of sin 
is found in its wrongfulness ; it involves the essence of wrong. 
The voluntary doing of wrong carries the notion of eulpa- 
bility; the two notions always go together and are insepara- 
ble. The distinction of right and wrong is founded in the 
very nature of things; it is eternal and unchangeable; it 
carries invariably a sense of obligation; it has the force of 
an eternal and unchangeable law. _ Hach of these notions, 
defined by this eternal distinction, carries its own inseparable 
feeling: right, the feeling of approval when it is done, and 
wrong, the feeling of condemnation. The notion of wrong, 
and its inseparable correlated feeling of culpability or blame- 
worthiness in the doer of it, necessarily exclude all justifica- 
tion, extenuation, or excuse. If any part of it admits of 
excuse or defence, that part of it is proved not to be wrong. 
True and full conviction of siu is then ear-marked by this 
peculiarity, that it extinguishes all disposition or thought of 
self-excuse or self-defence. It lays the hand upon the 


64 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


mouth, and the mouth in dust. On the contrary, there is a 
consciousness that the sense of guilt in the mind is not ade- 
quate to the evil which has been done, and consequently 
there is a desire for deeper and clearer convictions, and for 
amore profound feeling of self-condemnation. Instead of 
hunting for excuses and extenuating circumstances, the 
desire and the effort is to see more of the evil in order to a 
deeper and more definite repentance. Any one who is con- 
scious of this humility and condemnation of self, conscious 
of no wish to excuse himself or to extenuate his sin, con- 
svious of these habitual desires for a deeper and clearer 
intuition of his own guilt and for a more profound repent- 
ance, and who is conscious that this is a permanent and 
abiding state of his mind, has no need to suspect the suflici- 
ency of his own convictions of sin, just because he is. con- 
scious that his dread of the consequences of sin is more 
definitely clear in his consciousness than his intuitions of its 
nature. The weakness, ignorance and spiritual disorder in 
a soul in which the law of sin in the members is perpetually 
struggling with the law of grace in the soul, is sufficient to 
account for these disorders and disproportions in the exer- 
cises of a regenerate heart. 

Another mark of discrimination in our knowledge of sin, 
disclosing the intuition of its intrinsic evil, closely allied to 
this intuition of its culpability, is the laying of the blame on 
self. This strongly discriminates it from a mere natural and 
incompetent conviction, which is always selfish. The sin of 
a man is fis sin, and not the imputable fault of any one else. 
Where two or more persons are combined together in a 
criminal deed, the share which each takes in it constitutes 
his own sin, and cannot possibly be construed as the sin of 
another. What belongs to each is altogether his own. True 
conviction of sin distinctly recognizes sin not only to be sin, 
and not a mere misfortune, but to be the fault of sel/, and 
not of another. False conviction, or, more accurately, im- 


« cs cm > ms igi >a ss = a Cae ee ss » tan. 


ConvVICTING INFLUENCE. 65 


perfect conviction, for it is true as far as it goes, apprehend- 
ing the danger but not the real evil of sin, will be disposed to 
throw the blame on some thing or some person outside of 
self. Hven when it is impossible to extricate self altogether, 
it, will seek to share the responsibility with others, or to 
qualify personal concern in the transaction by reference to 
circumstances, as more highly answerable for misleading in- 
fluences. This trait appeared when sin first entered the 
world. Adam laid the blame on Eve, and Eve laid it on the 
serpent. ‘Instead of seeing and feeling the excellency of the 
law in the precept which has been broken, and consequently 
the evil nature of the deed done, it is disposed to cavil at the 
Jaw and to accuse it in some way. It will lay stress on un- 
favorable providences; it will seek for alleviating circum- 
stances in poverty, or health, or domestic troubles, or absorb- 
ing occupations. It will recite the defects and shortcomings 
of others, and in their sins, find an excuse, if not a justifica- 
tion, of its own. Not seeing sin as it is, and self in its true 
and exclusive relation to it, as something which is its own, it 
seeks relief from the accusations of conscience, and the peril 
incurred, by throwing accusations around in every direction, 
and defending self. Saving conviction works in just the op- 
posite way. It accuses self,and no one else. It sees sin in its 
true relation to self, and has no one to accuse but self for 
what has been done by self. It recognizes that no one is 
called upon to repent of his neighbor’s sin, but to repent of 
his own. It sees irresistibly that self only is involved in the 
sins of self, and puts the blame where it ought to be—on self, 
and self only. It sees the true responsibility of self, and 
makes no effort to hide, alter, or unfairly qualify the exact 
nature of what self has done. It calls a spade a spade, even 
ifit is its own. The necessary consequence of this state of 
mind is humility, not fawning obsequiousness ; repentance, 
not mere remorse; and dependence on the gospel remedy 
5 


66 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


for sin, and not recourse to excuses, or extenuations, or false 
constructions of sin, in order to find relief from it, 

Another proof of a true conviction and knowledge of sin, 
by which it is strongly distinguished from a mere natural 
conviction, is the discovery of it as against God as well as 
against one’s own soul or against one’s neighbor. Natural 
conviction also has a reference to God, but of a very differ- 
ent character. It recognizes God as the source of the 
danger which it apprehends. It recognizes him as the 
maker of the law which has been broken; as the executive 
magistrate who is set to see after the execution of the law, 
and therefore, as concerned, to inquire into all offences, and 
deal with them as the law directs. It recognizes him, as an 
arrested thief or murderer recognizes the magistracy of the 
state, as the power which is to deal with his crime and him- 
self. Such a criminal has no thought or care for the rights 
or the interests of the government. He never dreams that 
he has injured the sanctity of the great institute set for the 
protection of the people by the administration of the public 
law and justice of the commonwealth. Neither does the 
natural conviction of sin dictate any regard for God, save as 
the power which imperils his safety. God is the giver of the 
whole law, and when that part of the law which prescribes 
duties to others besides himself is violated, he is sinned 
against, as well as those whom he has legislated to protect; 
for it is his authority which is defied. So far as the law 
defines duties to himself, the violation of the law sins more 
immediately, but not more really, against him. All sin, then, 
is against God. All sin involves, in some way and to some 
degree, the element of wrong. All the qualities of the nature 
of God, and all his claims, are essentially and infinitely right. 
All sin, then, is in direct moral antagonism to the very nature 
of God. It is the destruction of the quality of the good 
that isin him. Injustice is in itself, and as far as it goes, 


CONVICTING INFLUENCE. 67 


the absolute destruction of justice. Cruelty is the absolute 
destruction of kindness. 

Sin would kill every quality of moral excellence it can 
reach. It would kill it in God if it could reach him. It 
cannot do this, only because it is weak in its malignity; but 
it is none the less malignant on that account. It is to be 
judged by what it would do, if it could, and not merely by 
what it accomplishes under the limitations and restraints 
which, either in its own weakness or from other causes, put 
bounds to its native destructiveness. Sin is against God 
because it so completely antagonizes his very nature; it 
would kill him if it could. Sin is against God as an uni- 
versally opposing force to his nature, his law, his adminis- 
tration, and his designs. It is an injury to his dominions, an 
offence to his person, an insult to his majesty, an outrage on 
his authority, a trespass on his rights, an opposition to his 
character, a reflection on his qualities, an impeachment of 
his law, and of himself as a law-giver, an interference with 
his purposes in their primary design, a disgust to his tastes, 
a contempt of his dignity, and an outrage on his feel- 
ings. It has filled his fair domains with infinite pollution, 
agony, and confusion. It has revolted against his control, 
and set up the awful dominion of ungovernable evil in its 
place. If it were only strong enough it would abolish him 
as a nuisance in his own universe, and draw a winding-sheet 
over the vacant throne of Jehovah. Spiritual conviction 
sees something—often feebly and confusedly—but something 
of sin as against God, and this leads to repentance towards 
him, not less than on account of self. False conviction has 
no idea of sin against God, except as the power to which the 
transgressor is accountable. It has no conception of sin as 
against God himself as distinguished from his law, or as subject 
to any personal damage or offence from sin. It knows that 
sin breaks no bones—inflicts no agony on the serene King 
in his infinite elevation. It is fully satisfied that he would 


68 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


take no harm if sin was allowed perfect impunity. It sees 
no reason why a thing so agreeable to the natural heart in 
man should not be allowed free range, or why the supreme 
Power should be so jealous of it. If it is in some respects 
an evil, it sees no reason why he should not good-humoredly 
overlook it. It sees no ground for that awful dispensation 
of atonement by the blood of God’s own Son. Sin only 
endangers man; it cannot possibly hurt God; and, there- 
fore, the only concern dictated by mere natural conviction is 
for the safety of self, the sinner. Sin is against self; it im- 
perils personal interests; and all the feeling kindled by this 
species of conviction terminates on self. The remorse it 
breeds is selfish; and if self could only be made secure, all 
solicitude about sin would vanish. Natural conviction has 
no care for God, or for his interests and concern in the mat- 
ter of sin. 

True conviction works opposite to this selfish resort against 
sin at every point. It sees that sin is a true act of self 
against God, as well as against self. It sees it antago- 
nizing God along the whole line of the relations of the crea- 
ture to him. It sees sin as a violation of just law, and a re- 
bellion against just authority. It sees it as essentially and 
necessarily warring on God’s rights and honor, making small 
of his importance to his own creation. It sees sin as an 
offence to his tastes, and absolutely antagonistic to his essen- 
tial qualities. It consequently feels a keen desire that all of 
its endangered interests should be fully protected in any 
accommodation with sin, and bound up in a full and honor- 
able satisfaction with its own safety. Sin must be atoned 
for as well as repented of, and God honored, while the sinner 
is saved. ‘True conviction is distinguished by this just re- 
cognition of sin as an evil towards God not less than to- 
wards man. 

A final distinction between true and false conviction of sin 
is found in a broad series of contrasts in their consequences. 


CoONVICTING INFLUENCE. 69 


Their effects are strongly discriminated. They are distin- 
guished in the point of permanence. As a general rule, in 
countries where the pure gospel is preached, the effects of a 
mere natural conviction of sin are generally evanescent; they 
soon pass away, and leave no trace behind. In Popish 
countries where the deadly travesties of Popery are the pre- 
vailing views, false convictions of sin often have very power- 
ful and abiding effects, sending the misguided, awakened sin- 
ner into the long routine of penances, scourging of the body, 
fasting, wearing of hair-cloth, and all manner of self-torture. 
The people are taught to believe that this sort of penitence 
is available to salvation, and hence the pertinacity with which 
it is practiced. In gospel lands, too, many a deceived soul 
lives quietly for years in the communion of the church, 
thinking that the troubled exercises of their early religious 
career were true repentance. But this class of persons gen- 
erally pass their days in no trouble about their sins; for the 
effects of their early convictions, not being sufficient to lead 
to genuine repentance, have long ago worn out, and the 
peace of insensibility is mistaken for the peace of pardon 
But effects of a true conviction are known by their abid- 
ing influence. Sin never loses its interest to those under its 
control; they are as afraid of it, and as keen to overcome it 
twenty or fifty years after the outset of their religious career 
as they were at the beginning. The impression of this 
species of conviction never wears out. It may lose something 
of its liveliness ; it may be more keen sometimes than at others ; 
but it exerts an habitual and controlling force on the heart, 
and on the whole character and career. 

The two species of conviction are also distinguished in 
their purifying effects. Both lead to reformation and the 
effort to get rid of sin. Natural conviction leads to a limited 
reform—to the giving up of particular sins, the danger of 
which it has learned to dread; but it confines its surrender 
to certain specific sins, gives them up with something of 


70 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


recret, and generally only for a time. There is a secret 
regret at the necessity of having to do it, and this unchanged 
preference for the sin itself, though given up to avoid its 
perils, is almost sure to lead back to its indulgence. Even 
when sound instruction informs the sinner that the thoughts 
and feelings must be purified, the effort to control them is 
confined to the specific evil thoughts which are accused, and 
little care is taken for the unholy tastes and affections which 
lie back of these specific mental manifestations and originate 
them. On the other hand, true conviction leads to the will- 
ing surrender of all sin as soon as it is recognized to be sin. 
When sin is committed, it is committed with a greater or less 
degree of conflict with the resisting forces implanted by 
grace. It is committed with many a pang mixed up with the 
unlawful indulgence, and is always followed, more or less 
quickly, by an honest sorrow and regret leading to better 
obedience in the future. The struggle of the true convict of 
sin against the sins which rise up in the inward conscious- 
ness is more determined, more indiscriminate, and more con- 
stant than the struggle of the natural convict. Paul de- 
scribes the effects of a true repentance following a just con- | 
viction of sin: ‘‘ What carefulness it wrought in you; yea, 
what purifying of yourselves ; yea, what indignation; yea, 
what zeal; yea, what revenge.” Imperfect conviction never 
works such results. 

The difference between the two species of conviction is 
strongly marked by the scope of the purifying and reforming 
effects determined by each of them. The natural conviction 
is confined almost entirely to outward actions, and these the 
specific actions which it has come to dread for their danger- 
ous consequences upon the interests of this life. It has no 
reference to the great fountain head of sin, the unholy heart, 
and the inward sinfulness determined by it. If it refers to 
the heart at all, itis apt to do so more as an excuse or ex- 
tenuation of outward sins than as the unholy source from 


CoNnvVICTING INFLUENCE. mek 


which they spring and the aggravation of their guilt. But 
under the light of an effective and full conviction of sin this 
unholy heart, this depraved nature, this inward proclivity of 
affection and will to sin, becomes in no long time the chief 
object of solicitude. Outward sins are seen to be but the 
expression of this inward sin. The outward act is soon done 
and finished ; but an unholy heart is a perpetual fountain of 
such acts. The cry of the truly and fully convicted sinner 
is, ‘Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit 
within me.” He learns to mistrust his own heart; ‘he has 
no confidence in the flesh.” He watches the upspring of 
evil thought and feeling in his soul, and not only becomes 
prompt to repress, but carries his indignant and painful 
effort at resistance down back of these troublesome thoughts 
to the more troublesome heart that lies below them. This 
permanent suspicion and discontent with his own heart leads 
to steady efforts to overcome sin, not only in the secret 
spring of thought and feeling, but in all its outward expres- 
sion, in word or deed. No false conviction ever leads to such 
reforms as these. 

The two species of conviction produce also different spe- 
cies of hwmility, and are thereby distinguished from each 
other. Both produce a feeling of self-abasement. A de- 
tected thief feels mean. This feeling may be so strong as to 
produce an abject, fawning demeanor; but there is not an 
atom of genuine humiliation in his feelings or his conduct. 
True conviction breeds genuine humility; it produces a true 
and honest self-abasement. False conviction often breeds 
the bitterness of mortified pride, and awakens sullen and re- 
sentful feelings. The one leads to self-defence; the other, to 
self-accusation. The one leads to tenderness and the spirit 
of forgiveness and forbearance; the other, to hardness of 
heart. The one leads to great endurance; the other, to re- 
taliation on others, and revenge on all accusers and punish- 
ers of the criminal conduct. The one leads to general and 


he Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


particular confession; the other dreads detection, and is 
greatly ageravated by detection. True conviction breeds an 
invincible desire for the mercy of God, followed by a similar 
unwearied effort to attain it. False conviction breeds de- 
sires which are soon discouraged by difficulties, and pass 
away. ‘The one justifies God in the condemnation of sin; 
the other tends to charge him foolishly. False conviction 
never leads of itself to the acceptance of offered grace; true 
conviction always does.. The one leads to repentance; the 
other, only to remorse. The one takes hold on the atone- 
ment and the great High Priest; the other, on a thousand 
refuges of lies. The loving, free forgiveness of gospel 
grace enables true conviction to see with special energy of 
intuitive insight the aggravated sin of unbelief, which re- 
fuses to accept it, and always learns to cleave to Christ as 
the sinner’s Saviour. False conviction never leads to faith, 
and leaves the soul to perish at last, in spite of all the bitter 
exercises of remorse and self-condemnation which may at- 
tend its selfish and self-seeking motions in a guilty con- 
science. 


C Hesse TS Bena. 


RHPHNTANCE. 


‘‘Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour, 
for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” —Lwke in Acts. 


‘For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented 
of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”—Pawl to the Corinthians. 


HE gift of conviction by the Holy Spirit is followed by 
repentance. Every cognition of an evil is followed by 
some answerable movement of feeling. Natural or false con- 
viction will be followed by remorse in various degrees; true 
conviction will be followed by true repentance. That there 
are two kinds of sorrow for sin, leading to two different 
kinds of repentance, is evident, not only from the two kinds 
of conviction, but from the distinction taken by the sacred 
writers between the godly sorrow, which worketh repentance 
unto salvation, and the sorrow of the world, which worketh 
death. Obviously, then, it is a matter of the most supreme 
importance not to confound these two species of sorrow, and 
the two species of repentance to which they lead, either in 
our knowledge or in our practical experience. To confound 
them isto die. To lead those who only sorrow for sin with the 
sorrow of the world to call and construe themselves as pent- 
tents, and as such entitled to eternal life, 1s to delude them to 
their ruin. 

The importance of this discrimination in knowledge and 
in experience is due to the fact that a real repentance is 
necessary to salvation. As we propose at present a compari- 
son between the two kinds of repentance in their essential 
nature, we shall state the main reasons which make genuine 
repentance a necessity as briefly as possible. 

73 


74 GiFrts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


In the first place, the evil nature of sin requires repent- 
ance altogether apart from the question of its bearing on 
the deliverance of the transgressor from the consequences of 
his sin, even although it should have no effect whatever on 
his relief he is bound to repent of his sin. Sin is essential 
evil; it is condemnable in itself; to do justice to it is neces- 
sarily to condemn and repudiate it. Hvery moral being is 
bound to do justice; the sinner in any particular case is as 
much bound to do justice as any one else—to do justice to 
his own act, as to the act of any one else. He is conse- 
quently bound to condemn and repudiate his own sin, or, in 
other words, to repent. The obligation of justice is inde- 
pendent of consequences. Tor a transgressor to refuse to 
repent is to double his guilt; it is to endorse and stand by 
the wrong he has done; and this deliberate reéndorsement of 
an evil done is to redouble the guilt of the wrong doing. 

In the second place, the necessity of repentance without 
regard to its effects is created by the continued obligation of 
the law. The breach of a law never works the abrogation of 
a law ; it continues to bind the transgressor as fully after his 
sin as it did before it. One violation leaves the law still de- 
manding obedience. If that obedience is rendered, its ne- 
cessary effect is to prevent a repetition of the wrong; it 
creates resistance and cessation of sin. Repentance, which 
is a turning away from sin, is manifestly the very thing which 
the law requires, and which a return to obedience would pro- 
duce. This obedience to the law leading to repentance is 
obligatory, without regard to consequences, and repentance 
is a moral necessity, irrespective of its bearing on the release 
of the transgressor from the liabilities of his sin. 

In the third place, on the supposition that the sinner is to 
be saved, the necessity of repentance is still more conspic- 
uously asserted. Salvation zn sin is a contradiction in terms. 
It is as truly an impossibility in the nature of things as 
health in disease, or ease in suffering, or reason in insanity. 


REPENTANCE. 15 


Sin is in itself polluting, and, therefore, incompatible with 
purity. It is a natural fountain of pain, and incompatible 
with peace. One must give place to the other, and salvation 
must be salvation from sin, or it is nothing. Many other 
reasons support this conclusion, but these are sufficient to 
prove, beyond all doubt, the necessity of repentance to the 
salvation of a sinner, and the supreme importance of a real 
repentance, for no other species of it can possibly avail to 
accomplish that end. 

The indispensable necessity of a true repentance having 
been illustrated, it becomes a matter of the last importance 
to understand what it is—what is the real nature of an effec- 
tual repentance. Repentance for sin will be necessarily con- 
trolled by the view taken of sin itself; true repentance will 
be based on a true view of sin—that is, a view answering to 
the real elements of evil in it. We have already seen that 
there are two distinct elements of evil in sin determined by 
the two grand divisions of the law of which sin is the viola- 
tion, its precept and its penalty, the one yielding the intrinsic 
evil in sin, the other its consequential evil ; the one its crim1- 
nality, the other its danger. 

The nature of the repentance following the cognition of 
an evil will be controlled by the evil which is chiefly seen. 
Tf the intrinsic evil in sin occupies the view, the repentance 
that follows will be repentance for sin in itself. If the con- 
sequential evil is chiefly apprehended, the repentance that 
follows will be repentance for its consequences, and for sin 
merely on account of its consequences. Calamity will excite 
regret; pain will produce distress; prospective danger will 
produce fear; but a sense of criminality and wrong-doing 
alone can lead to repentance. Nay, only a sense of crimi- 
nality based upon a just and approximately complete view 
of sin can lead to a true as distinguished from a false repent- 
ance. A man suffering under a fever is distressed ; but he 
does not charge himself with criminality; he has no self- 


76 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


condemnation however much of regret he may have. But if 
he is in trouble as the result of a criminal act, his grief is 
modified by a sense of personal blame-worthiness and re- 
sponsibility. But in all criminal acts there are always two 
elements, the wrong and the danger, involved in the act; and 
the grief occasioned by the act will be essentially modified 
in its moral quality according as the one or the other of 
these two elements occupy the attention. One view may 
look mainly to the substance of the act, and another, to its 
effects. The one may look mainly at the wrong done, and 
only incidentally to the danger involved. The other may 
look mainly to the danger, and only partially to the wrong. 
In both there is a certain sense of criminality; but in the 
one case the sense of criminality is altogether secondary 
to the sense of danger, and terminates on self and the 
interests of self. In the other case the sense of criminality 
is far deeper, broader, and truer to the fact; it terminates on 
the moral pollution and the condemnable nature of the 
wrong done, as the chief object of solicitude, and secondarily, 
on the peril incurred. The grief produced by the one view 
is a just grief; the grief produced by the other is a selfish 
grief. In the one case exemption from the danger would 
annihilate the concern felt; in the other, exemption from the 
danger by a gracious pardon will make the sorrow and self- 
reproach for the wrong itself only the more intense and 
lasting. ‘Then shalt thou remember and be ashamed for 
all thine iniquities, when I am pacified towards thee, saith 
the Lord.” 

It is clear, then, that there is a foundation, in the nature of 
the case, for the distinction drawn in the Scriptures between 
a true and a false repentance. Yet a necessary distinction 
must be made just here to prevent an unhappy misconstruc- 
tion by some tender consciences. As sin involves danger, 
a Just view of sin will recognize this fact, and consequently, 
in true repentance there is a distinct modification of feeling 


REPENTANCE. . are 


produced by this element in sin; and so far forth, there is 
an element in genuine repentance of a sense of danger, and 
terminating on self. Christians sometimes discount their pen- 
itent exercises as insufficient and unreliable, because they 
are distinctly conscious that they dread the results of sin. 
This is evidently a mistake, because a complete view of sin, 
as a danger as well as a wrong, must produce this dread of its 
consequences. The question really is, whether this view of 
sin is the only view of it, or the chief and controlling view 
of it. If the other element of wrong, or essential criminality 
in sin, is apprehended truly, and in addition to the appre- 
hension of its danger, then it is manifest that the emotions 
excited will be radically different from those excited by an 
exclusive, or mainly apprehended, view of the danger of trans- 
gression. As the danger solely concerns self, the emotions 
created will be directed upon self, and will be morally un- 
sound, or otherwise, according to circumstances. Self-love 
is not necessarily selfishness. A certain regard to self-well- 
being is altogether proper; it is nothing more nor less than 
_ that desire of happiness which is essential to the constitu- 
tion of every rational and moral being. Selfishness is the 
corrupt excess of self-love. Many a vice is the mere excess 
ofa virtue. Consequently, a regard to the well-being of one’s 
own self may properly mingle with the repentance of sin, 
and does not make it suspicious. False repentance is selfish, 
regardful only of self, regardless of others, even of God him- 
self and his rightful claims. True repentance involves a 
just self-love, which is altogether consistent with the claims 
of others, and of the offended sovereign especially. 

Hence, we may deduce the distinctive natures of the two 
species of repentance, and the marks which distinguish the 
one from the other, and reveal which is colored by a just 
self-regard, and which is animated by mere selfishness. The 
one is selfish ; the other is just. The one terminates on self 
alone; the other terminates on God as well as on self, and on 


78 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


self within the limits of a lawful regard to self-well-being. 
This regard to God and this lawful regard to self both con- 
stitute the discriminating feature of a true, as distinguished 
from a false, repentance, and shows itself in all the effects. 
produced by them. Both species of repentance produce 
general effects, which are similar in some respects, but with 
vital differences yet involved. Both result in a sorrow for 
sin, in a sense of shame, pollution, self-condemnation, hatred 
to sin, self-abasement, and the abandonment of sin; yet the 
radical elements of selfishness or godliness run through all 
these effects, and radically modify the nature of each, de- 
termining the one as morally evil, and the other as morally 
good, as each is the result, respectively, of a selfish or a 
godly repentance. The qualifying influence of selfishness, 
or a just self-love, on all of these effects will enable any one 
to decide whether his own repentance is true or false. 

1. The leading emotion created by a sense of criminality 
is shame. Sin is instinctively felt to be polluting and de- 
basing. The sinner feels degraded. The thief feels that he 
is mean, and especially so when detected. The man caught 
in any vice is ashamed when discovered. He feels a certain 
degree of shame on account of his conscious meanness, pre- 
vious to any other person’s knowledge of his fault; but this 
is comparatively feeble, and the capacity of feeling this se- 
cret shame rapidly gives way under repeated acts of trans- 
sression. It gains an immense accession of strength, how- 
ever, from the discovery and contempt of other persons. So 
long as his vice remains a secret of his own, his sense of 
shame is bearable; but Jet it be disclosed, and the sense 
of shame becomes poignant, and perhaps, for a time, 
almost intolerable. It may awaken a high degree of the 
sorrow of the world, which worketh death. _ But this sense 
of shame for personal meanness and detected vice terminates 
on self; it is altogether selfish. There is no sense of wrong 
towards a pure law and the God who gave it. The criminal 


REPENTANCE. 79 


feels that he has sacrificed himself. He has forfeited his 
claim to self-respect and to the respect of others. Here the 
difference between the shame of a false repentance and the 
shame of a true repentance begins to appear. His pride and 
self-conceit are wounded, and he is at once thrown into the 
attitude and effort at self-defence or self-extenuation. Re- 
sentment and the spirit of bitterness, and even of revenge, 
towards those who are acquainted with his fault begin to 
emerge. This shame is entirely compatible with a violent 
and haughty self-assertion, and also with the opposite mani- 
festation of an abject deprecation of censure and exposure 
at the hands of others. This shame is entirely compatible — 
with a heart unsubdued in its rebellion against moral law, 
and with the continued practice of other vices, and even of 
the very vice which produced it. The bitter consciousness 
of personal degradation produced by it is a dreadful scourge 
to a transgressor. But it is all selfish; it terminates wholly 
on self, and always looks more to the effects than to the in- 
trinsic wrongfulness of the transgression. 

There is an element of shame in true repentance. There 
-is:something degrading in sin, and when sin is discerned in 
a just approximation to the whole evil that is in it, this 
quality will produce its effect; and when the transgressor 
sees that he has incorporated this debasing element in his 
own responsible activities, it will be impossible for him to 
escape a feeling of degradation and consequent shame. This 
sentiment may often be less keen and powerful than the 
shame of detected vice; but it is more complete in its insight 
into the evil of sin, and more conscious of the evil done to 
others—notably to God himself as well as to self. It is not 
occupied solely with one act or a few associated acts of a 
single vice, as is the case in a false repentance. It sees sin 
more or less in all the acts of the life, as far as memory re- 
calls them. More than this, it interprets these acts as they 
really are, the fruits and the disclosures of the evil proclivi- 


80 Gurrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


ties in the soul itself, and its attention is mainly concentrated 
upon this ever-flowing fountain of sinful energies. The 
shame of true repentance springs mainly from this recogni- 
tion of the sin in the soul, the evil heart, the permanent dis- 
positions of the will to evil, the capability of all kinds of sin 
in the soul itself. The shame of false repentance is confined 
to one act of vice, or, if it looks back of the act at all, to one 
recognized capability of one mean action. But the shame 
of true repentance is based on the recognized moral defi- 
ciency in all its acts, even its best, and on that universally 
controlling element of evil in the heart itself from which the 
universal defect in all its expressions comes. 

Moreover, it is distinguished by the recognition of God 
and his sacred claims. It is a shame for having so com- 
pletely eliminated God out of all the thoughts and regards of 
the soul. It sees sin as rebellion against an authority infi- 
nitely entitled, not only to regard, but to reverence. It sees 
sin as naturally and inveterately opposed to holiness, just as 
injustice is in its very essence opposed to justice. It thus 
recognizes its love for sin as opposition and discontent with 
the very nature of God. It is ashamed of the degradation | 
involved in this distaste for infinite excellence. It sees God, 
as the lawful owner of his creatures, robbed of his property 
and his right to control it. It sees a Father robbed of his 
honor by the disobedience of his children; a lawful King 
deprived of his right by the renunciation of the allegiance 
due to him; a Benefactor requited by ingratitude. All this 
is involved in sin as against God. When the human heart is 
led to genuine repentance, and sees the intrinsic evil in sin, 
it recognizes it as mainly against God in his nature, law, and 
lawful claims, and it repents towards God. It is ashamed of 
such a fixed discrepancy of moral traits and affections with 
infinite purity. A feeling of universal defect and pollution 
comes to the front, and breeds shame for all its actions as far 
they are recognized, and especially for the polluted thoughts 


REPENTANCE. QT 


and feelings which fill the consciousness, and still more espe- 
celally from the polluted soul from which they spring. When 
sin as against God is recognized, it cannot fail to produce a 
feeling of meanness and criminality, which will create a sense 
of shame just in proportion to the energy with which sin is 
so revealed to the sanctified intuitions of the mind. All the 
expressions of penitent feeling delineated in the Scriptures 
are full of this sense of shame. ‘Thou shalt be ashamed and 
confounded because of thy iniquities.” ‘“O Lord, righteous- 
ness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as 
at this day.” 

2. This feeling of shame is followed by its natural conse- 
quent, the feeling of se/f-abasement. This feeling, under 
mere natural conviction of criminality, is a sense of degra- 
dation purely selfish, and is strongly discriminated from the 
self-abasement of a true and gracious sense of sinfulness. 
The convict feels that he himself is degraded, but he does 
not consent to it as a just consequent of his crime. He does 
not abase himself; his abasement is something enforced on 
him from without. It is attended by wounded pride, by irri- 

tated temper, by the disposition to excuse or defend the 
 eriminal conduct, and by feelings of revenge towards all who 
may know or allude to it. It will lead to self-assertion, or a 
cringing abjectness of demeanor. ‘True conviction leads to 
genuine humility ; the shame it produces leads to a just and 
candid recognition of the degradation involved, and the man 
abases himself; he consents to a feeling of degradation as 
just. Instead of endeavoring to throw it off, he desires to 
feel more of it, to be more and more humbled. He takes 
the blame of his evil-doing, and looking back of his act sees 
the evil disposition in himself from which it sprung. There 
is no wounded pride, no irritation of temper, no wish to ex- 
cuse or defend self, no disposition to revenge. Pride is 
truly humbled, sin is honestly confessed ; he condemns him- 
self, and feels that the censures of others, even when unchar- 
6 


82 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


itably rendered, are true to the facts, and instead of resis- 
tance to their judgment, or revengeful feelings towards 
themselves, feels that he is justly condemned. He condemns 
himself; he is humbled; he abases himself, and he is not 
excited to self-extenuation, or feelings of bitterness and re- 
venge. 

8. This feeling of self-abasement leads to sorrow for sin. 
Natural conviction produces sorrow, frequently an intensely 
bitter grief. There is verily a sorrow of the world that work- 
eth death. It is regret for the criminal conduct which has 
brought peril to himself, and, it may be, affliction to those 
dear to him or to others whom he had no wish or intention 
to harm. But even this partial sense of unselfishness is only 
partial; it is at bottom selfish ; the criminal grieves because 
the undesigned injury to others has only added to personal 
responsibility. He laments the folly which has betrayed his 
own interests. But the sorrow of spiritual conviction reaches 
further than this, and its moral quality is totally different. 
The true convict sorrows for the consequences of his sin, but 
also for something else. He sees the evil he has done, and 
grieves for it. He grieves for the criminal nature of his act. 
He grieves for the evil condition of his own heart, from which 
his positive evil ways have come. He grieves for the injury 
done to the authority, the honor, and the gracious kindness 
of God. He grieves for his disregard for the wise and right 
requirements of the law. He grieves for his indefensible 
treatment of the grace of the gospel. He grieves most when 
the danger is past; the natural convict ceases to grieve when 
he conceives the danger is past. The sorrow of the true 
penitent is deepest and purest when God is pacified for sin 
through the power of the atonement. The more the divine 
mercy is realized, the more the sorrow for sin melts into 
sweeter and more purifying emotions. “Then shalt thou re- 
member and be ashamed for all thine iniquities, when I am 
pacified towards thee, saith the Lord.” 


REPENTANCE. 83 


4, This mingled sense of the shame, self-pollution and 
sorrow-breeding force in sin unite to produce a hatred for 
sin. Natural conviction produces often a real hatred for sin; 
but it is confined to only the one sin, or a few sins, which 
have produced losses to the sinner. The drunkard often 
hates and dreads the particular crime of drunkenness, which 
has overwhelmed him time after time with distress. The 
gambler often hates the vice which has ruined his fortune. 
This kind of hatred for sin is discriminated by its selfishness 
and by its limited range of application; it is confined to the 
special sins which have imperiled self. The hatred of sin 
which springs from a true intuition of its evil nature is based 
on a discernment of its essential criminality, its essential 
wickedness against God, as a violation of a right law, as a 
natural polluting influence, and as a fountain of universal de- 
struction to the nature and the interests of the transeressor. 
It is not limited to a few special sins; it is not confined to 
the forms of transgression revealed as dangerous, and there- 
fore hateful, to the alarmed selfishness of the heart by an 
experimental realization of their power to distress. It recog- 
nizes all sin as transgression of law, and as such, an offence 
to the great Lawgiver. As such, it discerns it to be a crimi- 
nal thing, no matter how pleasing; as a danger, no matter 
how apparently harmless. It sees offence to God, and both 
pollution and peril to self, wherever it sees sin at all. The 
result is a disgust, a dread, and a hatred of all sin indiscrimi- 
nately, although on a scale of degrees suitable to different 
grades of the evil wherever it is fairly discerned. 

0. This hatred and shame leads to self-abhorrence and self- 
condemnation. “Now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I 
abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” The distinct 
and definite development of all the emotions leading to re- 
pentance for sin is more or less gradual, as a general rule. 
As the renewed man becomes more and more acquainted 
with the intractable spiritual disorders of the heart; as he 


84 Girrs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


realizes more and more its hardness, its proclivity to all evil, 
its treachery to good, its readiness to sin, he grows steadily 
in a profound disgust and distrust towards himself. As self- 
abasement springs minly from the sense of positive criminal 
energies, self-abhorrence springs mainly from the conscious- 
ness of the permanent depraved states of the soul itself As 
the stubborn wickedness of the heart is more fully disclosed, 
he abhors this state of things; he abhors himself; he shrinks 
from it with a mixture of terror and disgust. He is ready 
to join Paul in the cry: ‘“‘O wretched man that I am! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Under the 
united views of his guilt and depravity, he condemns himself. 
He realizes that God is just in condemning him. He sees 
that any just judgment formed of himself or of his acts must 
condemn both. He sees the justice of the censures of the 
law so plainly that he is unable to see how the condemnation 
of the law can be escaped, and there is no relief from this 
difficulty until he can realize the redemption of grace. At 
this point of contrast one of the leading distinctions between 
a true and a false repentance emerges to view. The one 
sees a single act, or a short series of specific criminal acts, 
disclosing, it may be, a specific degrading tendency in the 
character, which it often endeavors to offset by a claim to 
virtues of act and character in other respects. The sense of 
guilt, however keen, does not prevent the feeling that God 
might overlook the fault if he just chose to do it. No atone- 
ment is recognized as necessary to free his integrity from 
the obligation to do justice. But true repentance distrusts 
the perfect purity of its best actions; it sees defect in all its 
manifested energies; it sees the taint on all the inward 
powers of the soul. It sees its condemnation to be so just 
and inevitable under the natural operation of the law, that 
it realizes the necessity of an atonement, and a redemption, 
if it be possible. Under this sense of guilt and depravity, 
this soul feels itself to be vile, and abhors itself; it condemns 


“of 


REPENTANCE. Q5 


itself. It lays its hand upon its mouth, and its mouth in tie 
dust. It cries, unclean! unclean! So masterful becomes this 
consciousness of pollution, as time passes and the years 
mature experience, that the mind comparatively ceases its 
attention to the peril of sin, and even the sinfulness of 
specific acts. | 

The great source of constant anxiety is the felt conscious- 
ness of a living spring of iniquity in the soul itself, that law 
of sin in the members, whose tyranny made even the great 
apostle compare it to a decaying dead body chained fast to 
his living limbs. The most passionate and permanent desire 
is for the cleansing of this unholy fountain of energy within, 
knowing that such a purification is indispensable to purify 
the life as well as the abiding elements of the personal na- 
ture. The attention is fascinated by the working of this law 
of sin. It watches the uprising of unholy thoughts, fancies 
and wishes, evil feelings, desires, and stable affections, which, 
like flocks of obscene and ominous birds, drift in dense, in- 
cessantly moving masses out of the dark caverns of an un- 
holy nature. It sighs for deliverance; and the few brief 
periods of temporary victory, and the occasional brief su- 
premacy of holy emotions which now and then temper the 
stern struggle of the spiritual warfare, remain in the memory 
of the comforted saint like the memories of spring-time, 
sweet with scented air, the bloom of early flowers, and the 
glad lyrics of joyful birds. The sweetest vision of heaven 
itself is not the rose-embossed gold of its gorgeous avenues, 
the white splendor of the palaces and colonnaded halls, 
where the kings and priests of God forever dwell, nor the 
waving trees on the banks of the broad river of life, but the 
freedom of the soul from sin, the true and ready answer of a 
holy heart to the beauty of the Lord God, the ordered har- 
mony of thought, feeling and will with all the divine require- 
ments, the rest, never again to be disturbed, from all evil. 
The grand charm of heaven is Aoliness. This quality is to 


86 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the soul what health is to the body—a mysterious, inde- 
finable, all-pervading condition of strength, beauty, exhilara- 
tion, and usefulness. Depravity is just the opposite quality, 
and lays a necessary foundation for self-abhorrence, self- 
condemnation, and all the conditions of repentance. 

6. Finally, to this series of perceptions and emotions lead- 
ing to godly repentance, one grand distinction between it and 
the sorrow of the world is found in the realization of the 
goodness of God. “Know ye not that the goodness of God 
leadeth thee to repentance?” That goodness is only realized 
in the forgiveness of sin, when God is pacified towards the 
sinner. No such perception enters into the sorrow that 
worketh death; that unfruitful remorse springs exclusively 
from a sense of the justice of God and the terrors of his ad- 
ministration. Release the natural convict from his danger, 
and his care is extinguished. His mourning is all selfish. 
Not so with him whom godly sorrow is leading to the re- 
pentance which is unto life. The goodness of God has laid 
its white hand upon him, and is leading him to an unselfish 
and generous sorrow for his sin. The cross of the Redeemer 
has revealed its infinite tender compassion and its power of 
saving the lost; and as the lips drink eagerly the first deep 
draught from the stream of forgiving love, the heart breaks 
down into a sorrow for sinning against a being so gracious, 
far deeper and more effectual in its abiding influences than 
the bitterest emotions which spring from the view of sin 
apart from the grace which takes it away. It is an unselfish 
sorrow, and, mingled with its grief, there is a distinct ruling 
element of sweetness, love and hope, which makes the sorrow 
which leads to true repentance sweeter than many a joy of an 
unpardoned soul. There is no such element of sweet emo- 
tion qualifying the unmingled bitterness of a false repent- 
ance. 

7. These precedent perceptions and emotions, the just views 
of the divine law and of sin, and the emotions which follow 


IRKEPENTANCE. S7 


them—the shame, the self-abasement, the sorrow, the hatred, 
the self-abhorrence, the self-condemnation, and the grateful 
sense of the divine goodness, all unite to work the act of repent- 
ance unto life. The emotions which lead to repentance are 
often confounded with the act of repentance, and while they are 
inseparably connected with it, they are not only distinguish- 
able in thought, but are distinguished from it in so many words 
of the Holy Ghost. Paul clearly discriminates between “the 
godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto salvation,” and 
the repentance itself. The sorrow works the act: the one is 
precedent, as cause, the other consequent, as effect. “ Re- 
pentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of 
a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of 
God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn 
from it unto God, with a full purpose of and endeavor after 
new obedience.” The essence of repentance is in this act of 
turning from sin. Luther defined repentance as ceasing to 
sin. It is the act of the whole soul, mind and heart, taste 
and volition, all consenting in a revolt from sin, with a fixed 
purpose by the grace of God to do it no more with consent 
and free acquiescence. It is the fruit of regeneration, the 
issue of a change of heart. The word translated repentance 
means, literally, change of mind; and it is contradictory to 
predicate change of mind without change of mind. I re- 
pentance takes effect on the heart as well as on the mind, itis 
equally contradictory to predicate a change of heart without 
a change of heart. Repentance implies a change of feeling 
as well as a change of view. False repentance implies a 
change of feeling towards a sin, or some sins, as identified 
with its effects; but the very circumstance which distin- 
guishes it from true repentance is that the latter implies a 
real change of feeling and affection towards all sin, not 
merely as identified with its dangerous consequences, but on 
account of its intrinsic criminal nature. Such a change is 
only another name for that change of heart which is involved 


88 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


in regeneration. Repentance is a right-about movement, re- 
versing the direction in which the energies of the whole soul 
are acting, not merely in the governing purpose, but in the 
views of the understanding, in the affections of the heart, in 
the supremacy of the conscience, in all the forces which 
color and control character and conduct. It is an instant 
act of revolt against all sin, growing out into ten thousand 
repeated acts, and thus into a steady work and habit of re- 
sistance to all sin, and-for the whole life. The emotions 
leading to repentance may be at times more or less difficult 
to discriminate from the similar emotions of false repentance; 
but if the acts and habit of resisting sin are clear in the con- 
sciousness, there can be little difficulty in deciding the ques- 
tion. If the soul is conscious of this constant aversion and 
dread towards sin ; if this fixed purpose and habit, and this 
fixed but anxious and solicitous determination to overcome 
it, is clear in experience, such a soul hath good reason to 
believe that he who has been exalted as a Prince and a 
Saviour to give repentance unto life and the forgiveness of 
sins, hath already granted unto him repentanze and the 
good hope it insures. 

To sum up in a specific and detailed contrast between the 
two species of repentance—one springing from the godly 
sorrow that worketh salvation ; the other, from the sorrow of 
the world that worketh death. The one is selfish, controlled 
by selfishness; the other is prudent, ccntrolled by a lawful 
regard to well-being. The one is confined to special sins; 
the other extends to all sin, whenever recognized as such. 
One is embittered; the other is humble. One is afraid of 
detection; the other is free to confess. One is disposed to 
extenuation and self-defence; the other is anxious to see 
more of its own evil. The one is revengeful to others; the 
other is revengeful towards itself. The one leads to a lim- 
ited reform of faults in conduct, and to little or none in 
heart; the other seeks an unlimited reform, and most eagerly 


an 


REPENTANCE. 89 


in the inward parts. The one refers to Ged, only as the 
source of danger; the other to God as rightly offended. 
The one produces effects not often permanent, even in their 
limited range; the other does produce permanent effects of 
general improvement. The effects of the one are not purify- 
ing; the effects of the other are purifying, especially in the 
heart. The effects of the one are not humility, but self- 
assertion; the effect of the other is self-condemnation. The 
desire of salvation produced by the one is soon discouraged ; 
the desire of salvation produced by the other is permanent 
and inextinguishable. The effort to escape produced by the 
one soon ceases; the effort to escape produced by the other 
never ceases. The one never leads to the acceptance of gos- 
pel mercy; the other always does. The one sorrow leads to 
remorse, and ends in death; the other leads to godly repent- 
ance, and works out salvation. The one is the datum of 
natural conscience restrained from the paralysis of its func- 
tions by sin, and enabled to do its work by the restraining 
and supporting influences of the Holy Spirit; the other is 
the gift of Christ, the Prince and Saviour exalted to give 
repentance and forgiveness of sins through the agency of the 
Spirit, and is the exercise of a regenerate heart. 

The fundamental notion of all repentance is change of 
mind. If the repentance is a real repentance of the heart, 
it is necessarily in itself a change of the heart towards sin. 
All exercises of sorrow for sin, previous to a real change 
of the heart from the love to the honest hatred of sin, are 
selfish, and belong to the sorrow that worketh death, ‘This 
selfish sorrow from awakening and natural conviction, under 
gospel influences, is not useless, as it always precedes a gen- 
uine repentance, and tends to lead to it; but it is dangerous 
and misleading to speak of persons in this state of mind as 
penitents ; they are more properly designated as “ mourners,” 
or “seekers,” or ‘inquirers.” False repentance is not for 
sin separated from its effects, and only seeks to comply with 


90 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the terms of grace to escape destruction. True repentance 
is repentance for sin, and wages war on it in all its known 
forms, “to escape its pollution as well as its danger.” False 
repentance may lead sometimes to the repair of wrongs and 
the restitution of injuries, under stress of remorse, and as an 
inducement to mercy ; but it is all selfish. True repentance 
leads to restitution, because it is just, and because it has 
learned to abhor the crime which has injured others. False 
repentance seeks reform in the inward parts, whenever it does 
seek it at all, merely as the recognized path away from peril. 
True repentance leads to an habitual and eager universal 
purification, because it is not only essential to safety, but be- 
cause it has learned to abhor the law of sin in the members. 
“What carefulness it wrought in you; yea, what zeal, yea, 
what indignation, yea, what revenge,” is said of it. It leads to 
an universal and permanent reform of heart and life. Not 
discouraged by a thousand failures and falls, weeping and 
ashamed of its want of fidelity in duty, the grace-supported 
heart of a true penitent sends back evermore the heroic bat- 
tle-cry of the weary but unconquered soldier of Christ, “Re- 
joice not against me, O mine enemy; though I weep, I shall 
rejoice; though I am weak, yet am I strong; though I sit in 
darkness, the light shall arise unto me; though I fall, I shall 
rise again ; though he slay me, yet will I trustin him.” True 
repentance leads to life eternal. 


OT ¥ 


CHAPTER V. 
FAITH. 


‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves ; 


it is the gift of God.”—Pawl to the Hphesians. 


N faith turns the issue of eternal life according to the 
gospel of grace. It is of faith that it may be of grace. 
To know what it is to believe is to know the way of life; to 
exercise faith is to obtain it. Faith in itself is the simplest 
of conceptions; but to describe it in the completeness of its 
nature, its offices in the scheme of redemption, and its rela- 
tions to other truths and graces, is not easy. The movement of 
the arm is very simple, but to describe in full the movement of 
every muscle, tendon, and nervous energy brought into play, 
would not answer to the simplicity of the movement analyzed. 
Every guide of an anxious inquirer knows how impossible it 
is to convey any satisfactory notion of faith when the soul is 
trying to exercise it. It becomes very clear that the saying 
is true, faith is the gift of God, and he alone can enable it. 
Yet the truth must be taught, for only through the truth 
does God put forth his saving power, and there are so many 
difficulties, not pertaining to the real cause of the seeker’s 
disability, which are made occasions of resistance, and which 
may be quelled by instruction, to render it hopeless of effect 
to teach the real nature of saving faith in the Saviour and 
his truth. 

All faith in its generic nature is the same; it is belief of 
testimony; it is the credit of evidence. To believe a thing 
is to accept it as true. But this generic nature of faith may 
be so qualified by both intellectual and moral qualities as to 
make it entirely different, and thus to create different kinds 

91 


92, GIF?S TO UNBELIEVERS. 


_ of faith, more or less entitled to respect. To accept a thing 
as true on insufficient or unjustifiable evidence is credulity, 
or rash confidence. To construe the evidence and thus 
accept as true, under the coloring influence of pride, preju- 
dice, perverted moral tastes, or false rules of Judgment, is to 
create a faith intellectually mistaken and morally corrupt. 
The nature of all faith is strongly qualified as judicious or 
injudicious, by the intellectual qualities that enter into it, 
and equally qualified as morally censurable or otherwise by 
the moral qualities that color it. This is the great principle 
by which all kinds of faith are to be judged and their real 
nature discovered, by the qualities, intellectual and moral, that 
enter into their composition. The rule rests, as its basis, on 
the great fact of human nature, that its moral energies are 
called into play in the formation of its views; and the particu- 
lar kind of moral feeling or energy which is controlling in 
that formation, or which enters into it, although not sufficient 
to be controlling, will modify the final result. Ignorance, 
carelessness in dealing with the evidence, prejudice in con- 
struing it, perverted habits, affections, or tastes perverting 
the final conclusion, taint the faith which accepts, mars the 
conclusion itself, and irresistibly discloses the responsibility 
of the actor for his accepted belief. 

It is not, therefore, at all strange that the Scriptures describe 
at least four species of faith: hestorical faith, temporary faith, 
the faith of devils, and the faith which saves. Each of these 
is an acceptance of something as true, modified by the pre- 
sence of evil qualities which ought not to have entered into 
the faith which is exercised, or by the absence or the presence 
of some good quality which ought to have entered into it. 
With this clue, we may form some approximately just notion 
of each of them. 

1. Historical faith is the faith of the masses of the people 
generally in all Christian countries. It stands discriminated 
from all kinds of infidelity, on the one side, and from saving 


a 


Fatru. 93 


faith in the gospel, on the other. It is the settled intellect- 
ual conviction of the truth of the whole Christian system, 
and thus stands opposed to infidelity, which rejects it. It 
not only believes in the existence of God and in his govern- 
ment in the world, but in Christianity as a divinely revealed 
and supernatural system, in the Bible as inspired, and in 
Christ as a Saviour. It is a real, honest, calm, intellectual 
conviction; but it is not incorporated with the feelings of 
the heart to any great extent, and those feelings are not the 
right and justly due feelings which ought to enter into such 
a conviction. It enlists strong feeling as to the necessity of 
religion as a political and social restraint. It may be asso- 
ciated with family ties and hereditary honors. But it does 
not take hold of individual affections, except to a certain 
extent, or excite the anxieties of the mind, and certainly fails 
to awaken the pleasing affections and to establish a law of 
habitual personal conduct, steadfastly authoritative over the 
conscience and delightful to the heart. In this grave defect 
it stands opposed to saving faith. It is a real and honest 
faith, but entirely wanting in those moral qualities essential to 
do justice to the truth as a whole. It, therefore, cannot save. 
This sad result is proved by the sadder fact that many such 
believers are not saved—a result conclusively shown by the 
ungodly tenor of their lives. Historical faith, so far as it 
goes, does justice to the truth, and to the evidence which 
supports it; but it does justice to the truth only in part, and 
its exclusively intellectual character makes no room for those 
exercises of the heart which give the complexion of moral 
or spiritual excellence to the faith which is indulged. 

2. Temporary faith, or an acceptance of a certain class of 
truths—the joyful truths of revealed mercy—for a time, is 
portrayed in the stony-ground hearers of the parable of the 
seed-sower. ‘They are said to have received the word with 
joy, but not having sufficient depth of earth, they fell away 
when the time of persecution and affliction came. This 


94 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


faith is supposed by some to be saving, because a certain 
degree of joyful feeling was mixed up with it. It is thus 
construed to be the saving faith of the heart. That it was 
not saving is proved by the strongest of all proof, it did not 
save them. That it excited some feeling does not necessa- 
rily show that it was the right feeling—the feeling and affec- 
tion of the whole heart, the feeling necessary to qualify a 
faith as it ought, and is required, to be. It has just been 
seen that the real nature of any species of faith is regulated 
by the kind of moral and intellectual feeling that enters into 
it. It is not enough to show that some feeling enters into it, 
but also what kind of feeling. There is a certain kind of 
feeling, often strong and decisive, a feeling of political im- 
portance, or hereditary or social pride, that is mixed up with 
historical faith. The faith of devils 1s mixed with strong 
feelings. But that does not make those species of faith 
saving. What, then, is the nature of this feeling in the 
stony-ground hearers? It is evident, in the first place, that 
it was a joyful feeling; it is not said to be attended by any 
other kind of feeling. It was based on the joyful truths of 
the Saviour’s teaching, and on that only. It was conse- 
quently based on an incomplete foundation. It was a faith 
without repentance. It was the joy which springs up on the 
presentment of a hopeful prospect without paying just 
regard to the conditions and preliminary steps to secure it. 
Moreover, and most conclusively, it was a movement in a 
part of the heart only, in the desire of well-being, but not in 
its moral tastes and affections. It was the dread of danger, 
breeding hope of escape on the presentment of pleasing 
truths; but not the revolt of the whole heart, affections, 
tastes, desires, and fixed purposes, against sin, leading to the 
assured hope of escape on the presentment of the gospel 
remedies. Any heart, no matter how thoroughly ungodly, 
would rejoice under a strong, no matter how delusive, if yet 
an actual, hope of everlasting well-being. But the joyful 


FaIru. 95 


feeling in such a heart would by no means prove it to be a 
right heart, and its cheerful emotions, though strongly quali- 
fying his faith, would by no means guarantee his faith. The 
feelings of the heart which determine the nature of true 
faith, and the absence of which disqualify any faith, are the 
real moral tastes, inclinations, and affections of the heart, 
and not any merely passing sensibilities of hope or joy bred 
by a prospect of advantage without any sound or reliable 
foundation. This joy of the stony-ground hearers was like 
the joy of a child at the prospect of a new gift; it excites a 
temporary influence; but it soon passes away, and makes no 
abiding impression on the tastes and desires of the heart. 
The ground on which it sprang up was still stony; there 
was no depth of earth to receive the seed; the plough had 
not passed over it. The law must do its work to prepare the 
heart for the reception of the gospel; carnal security must 
be broken up; the awakening and convicting influences of 
the Holy Spirit must bring the sinner to see he is actually. 
lost before he can appreciate truly the glad tidings of great 
joy. There may be religious joy before this takes place, 
from some mistaken apprehension of the good news; but 
this is the joy of the stony-ground hearer, which soon passes 
away. 

There are many exercises about religion which are not 
truly religious. Every false religion the world has ever seen 
has its exhilarating considerations, which, when realized by 
the devotee, produce a kind of joy, but it is none the less delu- 
sive and ruinous. Faith must be qualified by feelings and 
affections far deeper than mere selfish appetencies awakened 
by mistaken views of partial truth, and soon passing away. 

8. The classification of the faith of devils is justified by 
the Scripture declaration, “the devils also believe and trem- 
ble.” The lost angels have no room for skepticism of God’s 
existence, or his government, or the truth of his promises. 
Their own knowledge acquaints them with his existence and 


96 Girrs To UNBELIEVEBRS. 


his character. Their own awful experience, past and pre- 
sent, acquaints them with his government and law. - Their 
own experience and knowledge combined acquaints them 
with the certain overthrow of their usurped dominion on 
earth, and of their own final segregation from the possibility 
of re-establishing it, and of their own final subjection to the 
full penalty of their crimes. They believe these things, and 
they tremble under the assurance. Their faith 1s no cold 
and impassive historical faith. It is a faith which reaches 
their hearts, not in the sense of a loving and joyful assent 
and consent to the things believed, but in the sense of a bit- 
ter, malignant, and terrified repulsion and discontent with 
the things believed. It is substantially identical with the 
remorse which sometimes seizes a human criminal and 
awakes the assured conviction within him that the retribu- 
tion of his crime is unavoidable. The expression, believing 
with the heart, needs to be discriminated to express the 
saving faith of the elect of God. There is a faith of the 
heart which is not saving—a faith which receives the truth 
and hates it; accepts it, because it cannot disbelieve it, but 
accepts it unwillingly, with the revolt of feeling, with mtense 
opposition of will. This is often seen in men; it 1s identical 
with the faith of devils, and seems to indicate that the faith 


of devils is not altogether confined to the hierarchs of the | 


abyss. There are phases of human unbelief which have no 
place in the infernal regions. There are no atheists there to 
deny the existence of God. There are no skeptics to doubt, 
no agnostics to be ignorant of, the realities of the divine ad- 
ministration. There are no pantheists among the devils to 
construe themselves as parts of God, and not personal and 
distinct existencies in their own wicked and miserable selves. 
There are no cool and unmoved historical believers among 
them, honestly accepting the revelation of the divine will, and 
not caring a bawbee about it. They believe and they hate ; 
they believe with intense and unrestricted convictions, and 


0 ee es 


FAITH. Si 


they tremble with awful foreboding of the sure wrath which 
is to come. There is no peace, hope, or salvation in the 
faith of devils; it breeds in them, and perhaps in certain 
classes of men, “a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery 
indignation which shall consume the adversaries.” 

4. Saving faith is the last discrimination of faith to which 
we shall allude, and the most important. The generic nature 
of all faith is the same; it is the avceptance of anything as 
true; but the entry of different intellectual and moral ele- 
ments into its generic nature result in producing different 
kinds of faith of vastly differing moral and intellectual values, 
and, as such, exerting answerable differences in the effects 
they produce. Saving faith is qualified by certain intellec- 
tual and spiritual affections which constitute its peculiar 
character, and under the arrangements of the covenant of 
grace enable it to secure that immeasurable result, the salva- 
tion of the lost soul. But inasmuch as this species of faith 
in its generic nature possesses some features in common with 
all other species of faith, and the consideration of these fea- 
tures will tend powerfully to vindicate the faith that saves 
from some assaults that have been made upon it, it will be 
advisable to discuss these generic features of all belief before 
entering on the detail of the special and distinguishing pecu- 
liarities of this belief which is the instrument of salvation in 
the Christian system. 

1. All kinds of faith have certain generic or general fea- 
tures in common. Faith, under all kinds, is the acceptance 
of a thing as true. Whenever anything is believed, it is 
meant that that thing is received as true. But in order to 
the reception of a thing as true, there must be something ¢o 
show that it is true; that is, there must be evidence or testi- 
mony to the thing in order to its being accepted as true. 
Belief, then, is a confidence in testimony. But the dealing 
with the evidence at once calls into play the active powers of 
the mind; this calls into play the energies of the will, and 

7 


98 Girrs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


throws open the sphere of feeling, passion, and prejudice, 
and this at once draws the authority of moral law over 
the scene of action, and determines responsibility for the 
final resulting belief. As moral law and the voluntary and 
moral powers of the human spirit are thus inevitably in- 
yolved in the genesis of belief, the right formation and exer- 
cise of belief may be properly required and commanded. 
There are features in the Christian doctrine of faith which 
have excited opposition to it, but they are the generic fea- 
tures of all faiths recognized by the common-sense judg- 
ments of all mankind, and it is, therefore, altogether nuga- 
tory to cite them as objections to the gospel doctrine of say- 
ing faith. Test these several generic features of faith by the 
universal requirements and usages of mankind, and the fact 
will undoubtedly appear, that in the teachings of the gospel 
about faith, it has displayed no subtlety of its own, exclu- 
sively, but has proceeded on grounds common to all forms of 
belief recognized among men. These universal grounds vin- 
dicate its generic features, and its special peculiarities are 
vindicated by their own special evidence. 

(1.) As to the first generic feature of all beliefs there will be 
no dispute. Faith or belief is the simple acceptance of a 
thing as true. Accepting as true is the very nature of the 
thing and the very meaning of the word belief. This 1s the 
primary and essential conception of faith. About this there 
will be no dispute. However true or false the thing believed 
may be, if believed, it is taken to be true. 

(2.) But to the acceptance of a thing as true there must be 
something to show it to be true; otherwise its truth cannot 
be conceived either as probable or known, and, therefore, 
cannot be properly asserted to be or believed to be. To 
assert a thing to be true, without any sufficient reason, or 
any reason at all to believe it to be true, is to assert a false- 
hood; it isa breach of the law of veracity. Let any man do 
this about any secular matter, and the common-sense judg- 


Amey oles Fp. ie a: 


FAIra. 99 


ments of men at once hold him responsible and condemn 
him as wanting in integrity. If he accepts any statement 
on insufficient, or extravagant, or superstitious, or incompe- 
tent evidence of any sort, the same inexorable common-sense 
judgment ascertains his responsibility, and sets him down 
as credulous, or superstitious, or rash, or foolish in -his 
belief. On the contrary, if the evidence is clear and pow- 
erful, and yet it is refused, and the thing proved is rejected 
as false, the very same common-sense judgment will ascer- 
tain responsibility, and ascribe the refusal to see and recog- 
nize the truth to passion, prejudice, ignorance, or to some 
cause resting in the will and feelings of the man. Without 
competent evidence no man can be required to believe any- 
thing. To deny this is to say that a man can be required to 
believe or accept a thing as true in the absence of every- 
thing that could show it to be true; in other words, to affirm 
as true what he has no reason to believe is true, which is 
only another way of saying he is bound to tell a lie. Evi- 
dence is the only rational basis of belief. It is not only the 
basis, but for that very reason the measure, of assent. Tf the 
evidence is decisive, belief ought to be decisive. If the evi- 
dence is only probable, the assent of the mind ought to be 
graduated accordingly. The degree of assent ought to be 
determined by the degree of the evidence. The relation of 
evidence to faith is all-important. 

From this relation between evidence and belief two of the 
greatest thinkers of the age drew the conclusion that there 
was no responsibility for belief. If the evidence was clear, 
it compelled assent; and if the evidence was incomplete, no 
one could be required to believe. In this they have been 
followed by the great bulk of the scientific world, the infidel 
section of which, especially, are eager to repel all responsi- 
bility for their rejection of the Christian faith, and hold all 
the censures of the Christian world as the unjust expressions 
of ignorance and bigotry. They regard the commands of 


100 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


"the gospel to believe, and its grave censures of unbelief, as 
absurd; evidence controls belief, and to command belief and 
to censure the want of it is as unjust and ridiculous as to 
command a man chilled with cold to be warm without fire, 
and to censure him for continuing to be cold. But the com- 
mon-sense judgments of mankind coincide with the teachings 
of the gospel in rejecting this view, and in holding men re- 
sponsible for their beliefs. They require unprejudiced and 
just judgments of men and things of each other in the ordi- 
nary transactions of life; they require them of judges on the 
bench, of statesmen in council, of all who are endowed with 
trust powers. The reason is plain: The view of Sir James 
McIntosh and Lord Brougham proceeded on the supposi- 
tion that belief was the product of one factor alone; that 1s, 
the evidence in the case. But the common-sense judg- 
ments of mankind are grounded on the clear perception that 
belief is the product of two factors instead of one; that is, 
evidence, and the action of human faculties upon it. ‘The 
presentation of the evidence at once calls the human facul- 
ties into action. This calls into play the energies of the will, 
throws open the space for the activity of the moral feelings 
of fairness or unfairness in judging of the evidence, and thus 
imposes the authority of moral law over the formation of the 
judgment. Consequently, obedience to moral law may be 
justly required in the treatment of the evidence, and in the 
consequent genesis of faith. The common sense of mankind 
does not disable the effect, or dislocate the relation, of evi- 
dence to belief, but it does at the same time rightly construe 
the influence of the will, and rightly estimate the influence 
of pride, passion, prejudice, and of all the moral feelings, 
good or bad, in construing the evidence. It sees clearly the 
coloring influence of the will and of all its affections in the 
genesis of all kinds of faith, and hence does not hesitate to 
hold all men responsible for their beliefs on all subjects 
whatever. To subject the Christian religion to contemptu- 


Fatra. 101 


ous censure because it does the very same thing, censures 
men for unbelief, and commands them to believe the gospel, 
is silly. The Christian faith and the common-sense judg- 
ments of mankind proceed on the same great underlying 
principles, and coincide in these five great generic features 
of all just and true beliefs. They construe all belief as the 
acceptance of truth; they demand evidence as the basis and 
measure of faith; they recognize the inevitable concern of 
the weld and its affections in the construction and estimate of 
the evidence, and in the genesis of belief; they recognize the 
supremacy of moral law over this genesis or production, and 
the obligation to form just judgments on the impartial con- 
sideration of all the evidence on both sides; and they unite 
in holding men responsible for their beliefs on all sub- 
jects whatever. 

There is another point falling as a subdivision of one of 
the five great generic features of belief, in which the general 
judgments of mankind and the demands of the Christian 
system coincide. Both require evidence as the basis and 
measure of assent, and both admit the full claims of legiti- 
mate personal testimony as one species of lawful evidence. 
Both admit that the testimony of a reliable personal witness 
is entitled to be believed. Both admit the right and the 
obligation to test his trustworthiness to any extent that may 
be necessary. Both recognize the lawful limits and quali- 
fications which rationally guard the reception of such testi- 
mony, and either reduce or enhance its claims to credit. <A 
just and honorable man feels that he is entitled to confidence, 
and that as he speaks the truth he is entitled to be believed. 
He recognizes the right of full inquiry into his trustworthi- 
ness in general and in every particular case. But injustice 
is done when the veracity of a true man is impeached; in- 
justice is a breach of moral law; men are universally bound 
to do justice; and consequently the rejection of personal 
testimony when really trustworthy is a wrong. Preliminary 


102 Gtirts To UNBELIEVERS. 


investigation as to integrity, soundness of mind, opportunity 
of knowing, and all other elements of credibility is not only 
allowable, but obligatory. But when trustworthiness is 
ascertained, the common-sense judgments of mankind and 
the teachings of the word of God unite in affirming that 
personal testimony carries all the weight of any other evi- 
dence in creating an obligation to believe. 

We may now proceed to investigate the Scripture account 
of the faith which saves the soul. The account given in the 
Scriptures of the nature and offices of faith is drawn out into 
a great variety of particulars, which can only be alluded to, 
and not fully discussed, in a limited treatise. The offices 
assigned it in the economy of redemption are manifold. It 
is absolutely necessary to give effect to the great redemption 
for the benefit of any individual soul. It is the principle 
that unites to Christ and secures his functions as a Saviour. 
It is the instrument by which all grace is received. It 1s 
the instrument of justification. It develops the power of the 
truth by giving evidence to things unseen, and thus makes it 
the instrument of sanctification. It animates all the graces 
of the renewed soul. It is the principle which regulates the 
visible walk and conversation. It gives power to prayer; it 
inspires zeal; it develops comfort; 1t overcomes the world; 
it triumphs over death; it crowns with full accomplishment 
that promise of salvation which it sealed the first moment of 
its exercise. 

The teaching of the Scriptures touching the nature of sav- 
ing faith is equally elaborate, and in some of its features 
apparently strange and paradoxical. Faith in its generic 
form is the acceptance of anything as true on a sufficient 
evidence; it is belief of testimony. Saving faith is the ac- 
ceptance of all the truth revealed in his word on the testi- 
mony of God himself. It is confined to the holy Serip- 
tures alone as containing the testimony. It is confined to 
God alone as the witness. It is described as morally obliga- 


_— 


Farrn. 103 


tory, and is, therefore, required of all persons to whom the 
testimony comes. It is grounded on evidence sufficient to 
create a just moral obligation to believe. It is also described 
as a datum of ¢he will, an exercise of the heart in man, and 
not merely the issue of activity in the intellectual powers. 
It is described, with an apparent paradox, as a gift of God as 
fully as it is affirmed to be a duty in man. It is described 
as a belief of truth mediated through tastes, inclinations, 
and affections in sympathy with the truth. It is also em- 
phatically described as a trust, which is always an exercise 
of the will—a trust zn @ person, in his truth and faithfulness, 
in his love and power. It is a trust in the words and in the 
works of this person. Another paradoxical feature is, that 
while this faith is morally obligatory, and, therefore, required 
under peril of guilty accountability, it is plainly and 
positively pronounced to be beyond the native personal 
ability of those required to exercise it. It is said to be the 
great regulating force over the character and life of the 
Christian. It is described as the acceptance merely of an 
offered gift, a drink of freely-given and refreshing’ water, a 
gift to one asking, as well as the reception of a gift from one 
giving it. Finally, it is described as a moral and intellectual 
energy in a soul peculiarly energized, and with all the won- 
derful effects it has been organized or appointed to accom- 
plish, possessing no special merit in itself. All its power is 
not in itself, but in something else to which it is related ; it is 
simply the correlated adjustment of grace, to which all the 
power of faith is due. “It is of faith that it might be of 
grace,” and, therefore, faith is only considerable as the in- 
strument of effective grace. These are the leading charac- 
teristic marks which distinguish the nature of saving faith. 
All these marks have been more or less perverted in the 
endless vagaries of human speculation. A brief expansion 
of them on their scriptural foundation will expose some of 
the more important of these misconstructions, and put us 


104 GiFrts To UNBELIEVERS. 


in possession of a truth which no man can afford to mis- 
take. 

1. Saving faith is the acceptance of the truth on the testi- 
mony of God in his word. This exclusive sphere and war- 
ranty of saving faith as found in the testimony of God in his 
word is clearly set forth in the word itself. ‘“ Abraham be- 
lieved God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 


“ Blessed are they that keep his testimonies.” “Thy word — 


have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” 
‘‘ He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because 
he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” The 
whole Bible is full of admonitions to trust in God, and of 
warnings against trust in any other being. In the Old Tes- 
tament the requisition is to trust in Jehovah our righteous- 
ness as the God of the covenant; in the New Testament, to 
trust only in Jesus; and unless two radically different reli- 
gions are taught in the two parts of the inspired record, the 
Jehovah of the Old and the Jesus of the New Testament are 
one and the same person. The testimony of God is found in 
the record he has made, and nowhere else. Consequently, 
saving faith in his testimony is confined to that record exclu- 
sively ; it cannot be required to extend its confidence beyond 
that record, while it is required to give full confidence to all 
that isin it. This truth is full of important consequences. 
It not only rebukes the dangerous resort to tradition outside 
of the record, or to deliverances of the church not based 
upon the record, but discounts many an error based on the 
misguided experiences of his professed people. Yet further, 
this peculiar character of saving faith rests all its confidence 
in the testimony on the divine witness himself. All the con- 
fidence it gives to the secondary grounds of confidence in the 
testimony of men, miracle, prophecy, or the wonderful accu- 
racy and concatenation of the statements of the record, runs 
back into this confidence in God himself. True_believers 


£ 


FaIra. 105 


onfide in inspired men because _God has inspired them ; in 
miracles, because God was the worker of them ; in_prophecy, 
because God has spoken it; in_the unity and harmony of 


ipture, b he mind of God was the source of the 
_revelation. Men may honestly believe in these secondary 


grounds of confidence, but their faith is not saving ; itis the 
honest but ineffectual historic faith which does not save. 


They do not see the divine witness back of the mere » proofs, 
and trust in him. It is belief ina communication from him, 
but_not a trust _in himself, nor in the words he has spoken. 
The insufficiency of this faith will be more fully illustrated 
hereafter. Real faith in God, the divine witness, is not only 
a trust in his promises, but_a trust in himself. That faith is 
“a fruit of the Spirit,” and when exercised_ specifically on the 
record as his word, it alone can convey the full impression 
that it is indeed the very word of God.* 
This mark of saving faith, its confinement to the inspired 
record, exposes some practical and some theoretical errors 
_ which obtain even among evangelical believers. It exposes 
an error of practice among some who overstrain or abuse 
the duty of self-examination. These are, for the most 
part, perhaps altogether, the true children of God, anxious 
to be clear in their professed claim to the character they pro- 
fess, and who, obedient to the command to examine them- 
selves, seek the proof of their faith in the records of their own 
consciousness and experience. To a certain extent, this is a 
legitimate proceeding, but it is easily abused. Faith is exer- 
cised on things out of us, not on things within us. Its objects 
are the record and the being who has made it, the promises, 
and the Saviour. Faith is required in the testimony and in 
the testifier. The traveler who comes to a bridge on the high- 
way, does not pause at the bridge-head and turn his thoughts 
inward on his own mind to see if he has faith.in the bridge; 
he never thinks of his own mental states; he looks outward 


* Larger Catechism, Question 4. 


106 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


at the bridge, and as he discovers the strength of its timbers, 
confidence in the roadway over it insensibly springs up. So 
long as faith is sought owt of the testimony, and apart from 
the glorious witness; so long as it is sought merely in ex- 
perience and consciousness, just so long will doubt and per- 
plexity ensue. Experience is often complicated and_per- 
plexed, consciousness is often difficult to decipher, and if it 
actually yields confidence, it is primarily confidence in our- 
selves, in what grace has given us, in our own piety, but it 
is only secondarily faith in the testimony. While trust in 
our own graces as disclosed in experience will often be doubt- 
ful, trust in the great legitimate and primary basis of saving 
faith, in the word of God and in the Saviour it presents, may 
always be clear and absolute. “The word of faith is nigh 
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.” To believe it is 
to trust the word and him who spoke it. It is not to trust in 
self, or in what has been given to self. Saving faith is not 
an inference from experience. It may be certified and con- 
firmed by experience after faith has done its work and dis- 
played its fruits. The confidence in the reality and sound- 
ness of tested faith is, morally valued, only the same with the 
confidence bred by the satisfactory proof of anything else 
which is esteemed to be valuable. But the saving faith itself is 
confidence in the testimony and in the witness, not confidence 
in itself, no matter how sound it may be. This faith is not 
yielded by experience, but by the word under the illumina- 
tion of the Spirit. Faith precedes and introduces experience, 
Manifestly, then, the original acts of faith are grounded on 
something else than experience, and all the acts of faith 
through the whole Christian life, down to the end, are 
grounded on the original basis upon which they began. 
They are based all along on the testimony of God in his 
word, Resting always on that alone, the experience of his 
servants will be freed from many a harassing perplexity 
which will and ought to grow out of the change, however 


Fatru. 107 


unconsciously effected, of the basis of confidence from the 
sure word of the testimony to the complications of experience. 

This principle of saving faith being grounded only on the 
word of the testimony corrects another dangerous miscon- 
ception of faith. It is supposed that saving faith is simply 
a persuasion of ourselves that we are saved—a conviction of 
our own minds that things are, or will be, as we wish them 
to be. This misconception of faith springs from a misap- 
prehension of the words of Jesus, “what things soever ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them.” It is very clear that these words convey 
the common doctrine of the New Testament touching the 
relation of faith to the blessings of grace. They mean 
believe in order that you may receive. It is the doctrine of 
James, “let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that 
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and 
tossed; let not that man think that he shall receive anything 
of the Lord.” The error in question may be construed in 
two ways, one referring to time present, and the other to 
time future. In the first, it teaches that if a person per- 
suades himself that he actually possesses the grace he 
desires, he will actually possess it in fact. In the second, it 
teaches that, if he can persuade himself that he will possess 
the desired grace, he will assuredly come into possession of it. 
Tn reference to the first, it is obvious to see that to persuade 
one’s self that he is in actual present possession in order that 
he may come into possession, involves either a persuasion of 
what is not true or of what is superfluous. In reference to 
the second, it is also obvious to be seen that the belief that the 
erace will be given, unless based on a promise previously 
made, is a mere presumption, without a warrant for the conf- 
dence. If the expectation is grounded on a promise, this is 
faith in the testimony and in the testifier. It is obvious that 
faith in a promise is one thing, and confidence in something 
not in the record is another. All men are bound to give 


108 GIFTs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


credit to every declaration God has made in his word; but 
no man has a right to persuade himself of anything not in 
the record. It is a dangerous delusion to teach men to per- 
suade themselves that things will be just, because they may 
successfully delude themselves into the belief that they ‘will 
be. Saving faith is not a presumptuous assurance concern- 
ing any unrevealed thing, such as the time, place, and cir- 
cumstance in the fulfilment of prophecy, in which such inci- 
dents are not foretold; or personal salvation, or the salvation 
of particular persons, or the final triumph of any particular 
creed or system. The discriminating feature of true faith is 
rest on the word, and on God who has given his testimony 
in it and nowhere else. Self-persuasion is bottomed on 
something discovered, or which is supposed will be discov- 
ered, in self as its main basis. 

This feature of saving faith discounts a variety of errors 
of different sorts. It shows the folly of some anxious and 
tender consciences which refuse to be comforted because 
they can see no allusion which they can construe to be per- 
sonal to themselves in the divine record. But even if their 
very names were in it the circumstance would only enhance 
the anxiety to be assured that another person of the same 
hame was not mentioned. The assurance of hope, which is 
the assurance of personal salvation, is altogether practicable 
under the record just as it stands. Belief of that record will 
soon warrant the conclusion of personal safety, for the pro- 
mise is to the believer. Faith raised to the clegree warranted 
by the mighty ground on which it is invited to rest, would 
soon disclose itself and all that it warranted to hope. The 
error of interpreting visions, voices, dreams, and peculiar 
experiences as assurances of salvation is cut up by the 
roots by this quality of saving faith as grounded and meas- 
ured only on the testimony of God in his word. 

A more dangerous and common error is equally annihilated 
by it, the error of trust in church connections and sacraments, 


Fatru. 109 


in the merits of other beside the only name given under heaven 
whereby we can be saved, in personal virtues, and in other 
kinds of faith. Trust in these is not trust in the only 
Saviour, and want of trust in him is want of trust in the re- 
corded testimony which God has given of his Son. ‘This 
essential quality of saving faith, trust in the testimony of 
God, and the trust in God himself as the witness, stands like 
a granite light-house throwing back the waves of all possible 
error that assail it on every side, or may ever assail it. 

2. The Scriptures teach concerning the faith that saves 
that 2¢ 2s morally obligatory in the highest possible degree on 
all to whom the testimony comes. This teaching assumes as 
its basis several considerations of the greatest importance, 
each of which is essential to a just moral obligation to 
believe. 

(1.) First, it assumes and asserts that the claim rests on 
a mass of evidence all-sufficient to sustain the truth of it, 
and thus to create an obligation to receive it as true. This 
evidence falls under two classifications generally contem- 
plated: first, the proof that God has testified; and secondly, 
the proof of the truth of what he has said. The first is op- 
posed by that species of unbelief which is called infidelity 
in its various forms; the second, by the species of unbelief 
which is characteristic of those who admit the historical 
verity of the gospel system, and yet reject its offers, and re- 
fuse to come under its bonds of obedience. An old, yet simple 
and effective, illustration will bring out the distinctions in 
these kinds of faith with clearness and precision Suppose a 
man to be in prison for a debt which he is utterly unable to 
pay. He receives a note from a friend offering to pay the 
debt and to release him from imprisonment. He is at once 
called upon to deal with the proposition. It is a free pro- 
posal, and must be simply accepted or rejected. The impri- 
soned debtor may deal with it in one or two modes, both of 
which carry the rejection of, or refusal to accept, the offer. He 


110 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


may question whether his friend is the author of the writing 
containing the proposal, and may refuse to accept it as a reli- 
able expression of his friend’s views and purposes. This will 
be the species of unbelief called infidelity. This is the proced- 
ure of all kinds of infidelity in dealing with the testimony of 
God. It does not primarily, in its own consciousness and 
intent, deny what God has said, but only that he has said 
anything. But let it be noted, that this species of unbelief 
effectually disposes of the offer made, and leaves the prisoner 
in the full stress of his unfortunate circumstances. But he 
may also deal with the proposition in a different way, yet 
with the same effect of no relief from his trouble. He may 
be fully convinced that his friend did write the note; he re- 
cognizes the handwriting, the signature, and the seal, and is 
satisfied that the offer was made by the person from whom 
it purports to come. This is the ordinary historical faith of 
the people of Christian countries: they accept the gospel as 
a divinely-given religion. But now the prisoner begins to 
question and doubt in his own thoughts. He may question 
whether his friend is really able to pay his debt; or, holding 
him perfectly able, from his known resources, to pay, doubts 
whether he is really welding to do what he offers to do. This 
is the modification of unbelief which coéxists with historical _ 
faith in the record, yet rejects the proposals it contains. It 
is a refusal to trust in the person who presents himself in the 
testimony of the note. On the other hand, the imprisoned 
debtor may deal with the note sent him in a way to secure 
the benefit offered to his acceptance. He not only accepts 
the note as genuine, but, believing his friend to be fully able 
and willing to do what he offers to do, immediately closes 
with the proposal; he accepts the offer. His faith is not 
merely a belief in the note, but a trust in a person. The ef- 
fect is an immediate relief to his mental anxieties; he will 
not wait to have the debt actually paid, and to walk out of — 
the prison walls, before he will rejoice. His mind will be 


FAIruH. PE 


instantly filled with the joy of an assured, anticipated relief, 
before it is realized in the fact. His faith in the note and in 
the person who wrote its generous proposals will give him 
immediate peace. This trust or faith is the saving faith of 
the glad tidings of great joy. 

Now suppose this letter to the debtor in prison comes 
from a stranger to himself, every consideration of candor 
and prudence would warrant him in demanding evidence 
that the paper containing such generous offers should be 
proved to be authentic, and the person proposing in the 
offer should be proved to be absolutely trustworthy. Sup- 
pose that a sufficient number of personal witnesses tho- 
roughly acquainted with the handwriting, signature and 
seal of the writer, gives him full assurance that the note is 
authentic. Suppose an equally trustworthy set of witnesses 
should assure him of the great resources of the generous 
offerer, and of many a similar act of kindness done for many 
prisoners in the same harassing circumstances. What would 
be the obligation created by this posture of affairs? Obvi- 
ously, in advance of all testimony to the reliability of the 
note and its contained offer, the prisoner would not be justi- 
fied in at once and finally repudiating the whole matter as a 
piece of incredible nonsense. A degree of skepticism in the 
outset that so unusual a proposal could be authentic might 
be justified so far as to make the prisoner at least raise the 
inquiry. But as soon as the testimony began to accumu- 
late, vindicating the proposal as probably true, the obligation 
to inquire would rapidly increase in force; and as the evi- 
dence grew into irresistible demonstration this obligation 
would merge into the full obligation to accept the testimony 
and to close with the offered kindness. Any imprisoned 
debtor dealing otherwise with such an offer would be held 
responsible by every sound understanding as guilty of reck- 
less disregard of his own interests, and of gross ingratitude, 
in questioning the veracity and in refusing the kindness of 


TL, Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


an unmerited benefactor. No doubt of the evidence would 
excuse his course; he has had full liberty to inquire; plenty 
of evidence has been offered him; yet because some feeling 
has been roused up in his heart, some pride in not accepting 
a gratuitous relief, his mind is so biased that the testimony 
loses all its weight in his judgment. He is dependent on the 
witnesses, for the writer of the note is a stranger to himself; 
and the testimony of these witnesses is conclusive; yet, from 
a secret disgust at the substance of the offer, he refuses to 
accept the testimony and persists in construing the offer as 
a mere nullity. Is he not morally responsible and morally 
euilty for doing it? It is clear that he has violated an obli- 
gation to believe the testimony of the witnesses on one side, 
and an obligation of gratitude and confidence in a generous 
benefactor on the other. His right to test both the witnesses 
and the trustworthiness of the maker of the offer has been 
abused in the interests of his own pride or disgusted feelings, 
to the sacrifice of the interests of his freedom from imprison- 
ment and his freedom from indebtedness. 

The application of this parable to both species of unbe- 
lief—infidelity, and rejection of the offered mercy of God 
in the gospel—is obvious. So far as the first species 1s 
concerned—the proof of the note—the evidence of the 
divine authority of the Christian records is abundant and 
complete. The steady progress and the wide and ever-in- 
creasing prevalence of a system so severe in its construction 
of human character, and so hostile to the indulgence of the 
cherished inclinations of the human heart, over the most en- 
lightened portions of the human race, in the face of the most 
determined opposition of the strongest influences that can 
operate on human opinion, is proof demonstrative of a force 
in the supports of the system of the most extraordinary 
character. The evidences of Christianity constitute by 
themselves a branch of knowledge which, in width, variety, 
and valuable qualities, will compare favorably with any 


FAIrTH. 113 


other. No records of the past have come down from so 
venerable a remoteness of history, so interlocked with the 
legislation and the annals of nations, and so sustained by 
proofs of authenticity, as the records known as the Scrip- 
tures. Prophecies extending over thousands of years, over 
the affairs of many different nationalities and the histories of 
individuals, appeal boldly to events to justify their claims to 
a true foreknowledge. Miracles, showing the finger of God 
along a long line of messengers charged with his commission, 
have defied the resistance of the most consummate abilities 
at various stages of its progress, and commanded the confi- 
dence of the highest minds of every age. The traces of a 
super-human insight into the principles of the divine admin- 
istration, the facts of the universe, the nature of God, the 
conditions of human existence, and the relief of human ne- 
cessities, are to be found in the wonderful writings which 
bear the name and the signature of the infinite God. Per- 
sonai testimony, of a species irresistible by any unbiased un- 
derstanding, affirms them as no other records are affirmed. 
The delineation of the chief figure in its great galleries of 
_ historic characters is by itself a vindication of its subordinate 
official witnesses. These men, judged by the fair application 
of all the rules for testing the trustworthiness of personal 
witnesses, are vindicated as entitled to the absolute confi- 
dence of mankind. But apart from all consideration of their 
claim from character, their work in the record itself demon- 
strates the truth of their narrative. The delineation of the 
character and history of Jesus of Nazareth is as real a work 
of literary art as any character of Shakespeare, or a descrip- 
tion of a great medizeval church by John Ruskin. It was as 
impossible to several unlettered Jewish peasants as the de- 
lineation of Hamlet by a village idiot, or the description of 
St. Marks by a child in his primer. 

The sketch of the Christ is true, because it was impossible 
unless it was true. The only way in which such men as the 

8 


114 Girts tro UNBELIEVERS. 


authors of the Gospels could have drawn a character so sim- 
ple, so grand, so beautiful, so absolutely unique in human 
history, is that they simply told what they had seen a liv- 


ing person do, and what they had heard him say. ‘This — 


wonderful person has been endorsed as no other being ever 
was or ever will be. Not only the millions who have risked 
their eternal future upon his words and works, but great 
statesmen, soldiers, philosophers, and even the great infidel 
leaders of the opposition to his system, have endorsed him as 
no other member of the human race has ever been. Napo- 
leon, the greatest genius for action the world has probably ever 
produced, has given the most remarkable testimony of mod- 
ern times. A king and the founder of a kingdom alone can 
fully appreciate a king and the founder of a kingdom. The 
great emperor, comparing himself, Cvsar, Alexander, and 
Charlemagne, as founders of empires, with Jesus of Naza- 
reth, is amazed at the brief standing of the most remarkable 
kingdoms founded upon force, compared with the long dura- 
tion and the ever-increasing vitality of a kingdom founded 
upon love. The judgment was just. Already the kingdom 
of Messiah has lasted more than six hundred and fifty years 
longer than the most stable of all earthly states, the old Ro- 
man republic and empire. Not one penny now flows into 
the treasury of the Cesars; ever-increasing millions flow into 
the treasury of the Nazarene every year. Not one human 
being now stretches a limb to obey the orders of a prince 
whose word would once have set in motion a hundred mil- 
lions of men, from the border of Scotland to the Euphrates in 
Asia. Thousands of faithful men, and gentle women too, go 
out over all the seas and tempt the rage of all barbarous 
tribes, in obedience to the words, ‘Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature.” No wonder Napo- 
leon said to his suite in St. Helena, “I know men, and I 


( 
| fe.’ 


4. 


tell you, Jesus is not aman.” If any one ever knew what — 


man can do, it was the man who had done perhaps more than 


FaIrn. 1D 


any one man had ever done before, and this was his judg- 
ment of the Messiah of the kingdom. But more striking still 
is the endorsement of the great infidel leaders of our own 
day. Strauss, the leader of the modern infidels, speaks of 
him “as the highest object we can possibly imagine with re- 
spect to religion, the being without whose presence in the 
mind perfect piety is impossible.” Hegel sees in him “the 
union between the human and divine.” At an earlier day, 
Spinoza sees in him “the best and truest symbol of Romer, 
wisdom.” Kant discovers in him “ideal perfection.” Rous- 
seau strains his wonderful eloquence to exalt him. Even the 
sneering spirit of Voltaire is awed in his presence. His 
worst enemies fall upon their knees as they gaze at him. 
This is the great personal witness of the gospel. The notion 
that the only personal witnesses of the facts lying at the base 
of the Christian system are the apostles, is wholly mistaken. 
They are worthy of the highest confidence, but they are not 
the only witnesses. The Christ himself, this grand embodi- 
ment of all purity and truth, testifies to his own gospel: “I 
tell you the truth.” Endorsed more highly by the infidels 
themselves than any other witness was ever endorsed, his 
clear and positive testimony creates an obligation to believe, 
than which no similar obligation can be conceived to be 
higher. If unimpeachable evidence can create such a bond, 
the evidence of the Christian faith creates it in its highest 
form. The common-sense intuitions of all men pronounce 
that competent proof creates obligation to believe, which no 
man can refuse to obey without guilt. The gospel only con- 
firms that decision. 

(2.) A second element of obvious responsibility in saving 
faith is the fact that it is a datum of will; it is an issue of the 
heart in man. “ With the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness.’ Unbelief is the outcome of “an evil heart of unbe- 
hef.” This assertion is resented by the infidels of the day, 
who pride themselves on the philosophic candor of their 


116 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


judgments, and their rigorous obedience to the laws of 
scientific investigation. That they are consciously so, we 
have no disposition to deny of any; we are sure of the truth 
of this claim on the part of many of them. But we are also 
sure that there is such athing as honest self-deception. We 
are even more certain that these speculators are not emanci- 
pated from the universal law, recognized by the common- 
sense judgments of men as well as by the Scriptures, which 
binds the Auman will in an unchangeable relation to evi- 
dence on all subjects whatever. It cannot be expected, then, 
that any fair analyst of the genesis of beliefs should exempt 
them from responsibility for the implication of their volun- 
tary faculties in their opinions and from the obligation of 
that grand moral law called into play whenever the volun- 
tary and moral energies of the human spirit are exerted, and 
preside over the formation of the resulting judgments. It is 
vain to attempt to obscure, much less to destroy, the relation 
of fuith to evidence, the relation of evidence to will, the rela- 
tion of moral law to will Gealing with the evidence, and the 
consequent responsibility for belief. If men are responsible 
for their beliefs on all subjects whatever, these skeptical and 
infidel thinkers are not just in claiming an exemption from 
full responsibility for their accepted conclusions. 

That the saving faith of the gospel is to a grave extent 
a datum of the will-or heart in*‘man is shown by more than 
one proof. It has been shown already that the action 
of the will in the formation of beliefs is recognized as 
universally true of all judgments whatever by the common- 
sense of mankind. It is not strange that the saving faith 
of the gospel should be qualified by an element recognized 
as universally prevalent; it would be strange if it were not. 
Every one of the three species of faith in the Christian sys- 
tem already described as historical, temporary, and the faith 
of devils, is strongly colored by the influence of the volun- 
tary and moral powers; it would be an unaccountable anom- 


» Seer Opal 6 ary 


FatItTu. a DEY; 


aly if the fourth species of saving faith were not similarly 
qualified. 

But more than this, the moral tastes, affections, emotions 
and permanent dispositions, which are all characteristic de- 
terminations of the voluntary powers of the soul, are directly 
concerned in the genesis of the unbelief and the saving. faith 
which determine the issues of the Christian gospel for good 
or ill. This inevitably determines obligation and responsi- 
bility at every step of the processes of both these opposite 
conclusions, unbelief and faith. A brief detail of those pro- 
cesses, showing the coloring influence of the prevailing tastes 
and inclinations of the will, will make this plain. 

Faith is the belief of testimony; unbelief is the refusal to 
believe it. The testimony may be either personal or imper- 
sonal. Impersonal testimony may be the force of reasoning, 
the power in facts, the concurrence of circumstances, or the 
adhesion of a system. If either of these species of proof 
are clearly and powerfully developed, they create an obliga- 
tion to believe, proportionate to their own conclusiveness, 
which cannot be resisted without a corresponding responsi- 
bility. Personal testimony is the declaration of a person, 
and. both of these classes allow the strong influence of the 
voluntary and moral energies in the production of the con- 
clusions reached. A person testifies concerning the char- 
acter of another person, and declares that he is a wise and 
good man. Suppose, now, this testimony is fully believed, 
what is the effect? In the first place it approves the witness ; 
it relies upon him as at once competent in intelligence to 
discern, and morally trustworthy to report character in men. 
In the second place, belief in the testimony not only 
approves the witness, but approves the subject-matter of the 
testimony, and accepts the person referred to as a wise and 
good man. But suppose, now, there are strong and fixed feel- 
ings of hostility in the heart of him to whom the testimony is 
given, against the person referred to, the opposite conclusions 


118 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


would be reached, and would be altogether due to the hostile 
feelings which qualified the testimony of the witness. The 
witness himself would be impeached, either as mistaken or 
false, and the subject-matter of the testimony, instead of 
being approved as wise and good, would be assailed by the 
unbelief of the testimony as neither wise nor good. Unbe- 
lief not only impeaches the witness, but strikes directly at 
the subject of the testimony. To say we do not believe one 
to be wise is the same thing as to say he is foolish. To say 
we do not believe him to be good or honest is to say he is 
bad or dishonest. This is a sample of personal testimony. 
Take one of impersonal testimony. The Scriptures and the 
just intuitions of the human understanding assert that sin 1s 
a hateful, and holiness a lovely and lovable thing. To believe 
that asseveration to be true is to approve the testimony 
which asserts it, and to endorse the subject-matter of the 
testimony as being actually what the testimony asserts it to 
be, to really accept sin as hateful and holiness as lovely. 
But now suppose the heart is in love with sin and sees it as 
agreeable; suppose the heart is opposed to holiness and 
sees it as a needless puritanical precision, what would be 
the effect? Certainly the testimony would be rejected; and 


the unbelief generated directly by the state of the depraved. 


affections would leave the mind fully possessed with the 
conviction that sin was not hateful but pleasing, that holiness 
was not lovely but disagreeable. The direct cause of this 
fatal unbelief is the state of the heart. The sample illus- 
trates the whole. The conclusion is resistless that, Inasmuch 
as the tastes and inclinations of the voluntary powers of the 
soul do enter so greatly and control so powerfully the gene- 
sis of faith, that grace is properly brought under the obliga- 
tion of moral law, and men are lawfully commanded to obey 
it when it requires men to believe aright. 

The analysis also discloses the awful sinfulness of unbelief 
when applied to the testimony of God in his word. It as- 


FAITH. 119 


sails the divine witness in the first instance. It 1s in vain 
for the infidel to protest that he does not assail God, but 
only the witnesses who have pretended to impart his testi- 
mony. They assail the testimony; if that testimony is only 
the testimony of Paul and John, then truly only Paul and 
John are assailed; but if they really did speak as moved by 
the Holy Ghost, and as the mere mouth-pieces of Almighty 
God, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that they 
assail the divine witness and make hima liar. Yet further, 
as unbelief not only assails the witness, but strikes, through 
the dishonored testimony, at the matter it contains, unbelief 
of the records which God has given is really one sublime 
energy of wickedness assailing all the matter contained in 
the testimony. That testimony contains all the grand prin- 
ciples of his moral administration in nature and in grace. 
It asserts the rightful authority, the wisdom, and the equity 
of his laws. It asserts all the grand excellences of his per- 
sonal character. It affirms the beauty and blessedness of 
his service. It asserts the wonders of his love in the re- 
demption of grace. It declares the existence of heaven and 
hell; it offers the one; it warns against the other. It un- 
covers the history of the past; it foretells of the future. It 
warns and entreats; it threatens and pleads. To all this 
unbelief gives a negative. It denies all, and by this denial 
not only assails the witness, but assails the whole subject- 
matter of his testimony. It assails the authority and excel- 
lence of the law. It assails the character of God. It as- 
sails his grace and renounces his redemption. It denies 
heaven; it denies hell. It will have nothing as God would 
have it. It would reverse all the matter of the testimony 7/ 
its power could realize its tendencies. It is weak in its ma- 
lignity, but it is none the less malignant for that. It is to be 
judged by what it would do if it could. This effect, however, 
it does accomplish. While unbelief in the excellence of the 
divine law, for example, does not make that law a bad law, 


120 GIFTS To UNBELIEVERS. 


it does make it a bad law ¢o him who indulges this unbelief. 
While powerless in its malignant tendencies on all the truth 
it assails, outwardly considered, it does succeed in trans- 
muting all the truth it denies to the mind of the individual 
who disbelieves. To him the law of God is a harsh and un- 
reasonable bond; the character of God only an occasion of 
hate and fear; his grace is a dream, and his wrath a bug-bear. 
It reverses every item in the matter of the testimony, 
denies and assails all, and fills him who indulges the wicked 
and destructive principle with an immeasurable and most 
guilty responsibility. To prohibit such a principle, and to 
command men to yield to the principle opposed to it, and to 
believe the testimony of God, is too conspicuously right to 
admit of any rational denial. To command men to believe 
the gospel, with the usual notions of moral responsibility for 
obedience to the command, appears an incomprehensible 
piece of folly to the skeptics of the day. This is due to the 
fact that they are accustomed to regard belief as the deter- 
mination of the intellect alone, unaffected by any energy of 
the will, as a result of evidence alone, which they are accus- 
tomed to consider omnipotent over belief. The notion is 
absurd and impossible, contradicted by the universal com- 
mon-sense judgments of mankind, and repudiated in all the 
scenes of intellectual activity among men. The influence of 
the will, and the moral tastes and dispositions grounded in 
the will, in the genesis of faith of every kind, imposes the 
authority of moral law over the whole process, and requires 
just judgments to be formed. It thus becomes absolutely 
proper to command men to believe, and to hold them answer- 
able for their beliefs. 

(3.) Another element in the obligatory and responsible 
character of saving faith is that it is a ¢rust, and a trust in a 
person. A trust is an act of the will, which always carries re- 
sponsibility. It is an act of committal to an agent to act for 
us, the choice of a person to whom grave interests are com- 


Fara. 121 


mitted to be administered. It is an act of choice. It is an 
act of confidence which must be vindicated in order to jus- 
tify the trust. If events show the confidence was misplaced, 
the chooser and maker of the trust will stand responsible for his 
choice as truly as if he had had no agent, and had acted for 
himself. The degrees of this responsibility admit of wide 
variations, from mere misfortune to positive criminality in risk- 
ing grave concerns without due caution. But responsibility 
is involved in the very nature of a trust-responsibility on 
both parties to it—on him who makes it and on him who un- 
dertakes it. 

In our initial illustration, bringing out distinctly the differ- 
ence between belief in a record and faith in a person, this 
notion of a trust was clearly involved. In the Scripture les- 
sons about saving faith, this notion of a trust is often ex- 
pressed and always implied. “Trust ye in the Lord forever,” 
“who first trusted in Christ,” are specimen instances from 
both of the Testaments. To believe in a person is, in gene- 
ral form, to confide in him, which is only another name for 
trusting in him. This species of trust may exist where no- 
thing is expected of the trusted person. It is another and a 
more pointed form of a trust, when, confiding in his integrity, 
some valued interest is committed to his charge. In our 
parallel of the imprisoned debtor, supposing him resolved to 
accept the generous offer of his friend, it is plain that the 
second act of his faith was a trust in his fiend as a person. 
The first act was to accept the note containing the offer as 
truly a communication from his friend. But while believing 
this, he was not satisfied at first of the ability of his friend 
to pay his debt, or, satisfied of his ability, felt suspicious of 
his willingness to do an action of such transcendent gener- 
osity. This state of mind indicated belief in the authen- 
ticity of the letter, and a want of confidence in the person. 
But now supposing this want of confidence to give way, and 
a thorough conviction of both the ability and willingness 


ay GIFTS To UNBELIEVERS. 


of his friend to do what he offered to do, this new state of 
mind indicates more than one change. It reveals not only 
belief in the authenticity of the letter, but confidence in the 
words it contains; not only confidence in the words spoken, 
but a confidence in the person who spoke them; and not only 
a confidence in the person, but a consent to his proposal, an 
acceptance of his offer, and a ¢rust in the person to do what 
he offered to do. This trust is an act of the will, a motion 
of the heart, committing freely to his friend the doing of all 
the acts necessary to be done in order to free him from his 
debt, and to deliver him from the prison. This trust in a 
person is a trust in his own words, and also in his works, in 
his veracity as well asin his kindness, in his ability as well as 
in his good will. It is immediately followed by peace of 
mind, and this is the peace of saving faith; it is due only to 
this trust in a person. Then, when all is done, the debt paid, 
the necessary papers of the prison authorities signed, and 
the prisoner, leaving his cell, begins to pass along the prison 
corridors to liberty at the gate, his exultation is renewed ; and 
this is the joy of experience which follows the saving faith in 
the person of the Redeemer. This is the peace of the whole 
Christian life in part, until the gate is opened and the trust- 
ing soul is admitted into the full liberty of the state of glory. 
In part, the peace of that period of progress towards the 
completed deliverance rests still on the offer, the promise, 
the kindness, ability, and faithfulness of the glorious person 
who has undertaken to deliver. A mere persuasion that 
Christ will save, without a distinct acceptance of his offer, 
without definite reference to his own words, and confidence 
in them, and without a definite trust in himself and a definite 
committal of the work of saving into his hands, is a traves- 
ity of this saving faith, which is dangerous. The trust and 
acceptance logically precede the persuasion that he will save, 
and the two are not to be confounded. 

It is obvious that this trust in the person of the offered 


FArru. 123 


deliverer was obligatory on the imprisoned debtor. He would 
have been guilty in a high degree to have failed to confide 
in his generous friend, to accept his offer, and to trust in his 
person, his words, his ability and willingness to redeem his 
pledge, and his pledged activity in doing all the work neces- 
sary to redeem it. Every conceivable obligation of gratitude, 
love, and confidence bound the act of trust and demanded it. 
The prisoner might have been properly exhorted and com- 
manded to do it. An appeal to will, grounded upon such 
srave obligatory considerations created a profound obliga- 
tion to believe and live. Such is saving faith as directed 
upon the Saviour as a person. It is a trust in himself as a 
person, as a living Saviour now administering his grace on 
the throne of heaven. It also implies a trust in his works, 
already finished, as well as in his work yet to be done in 
carrying out his pledge to save. It is a trust in his work as 
a dying Saviour—in the efficacy of his atonement. It is a 
trust in his word as already spoken; for they contain the 
offer of his grace, the promise of his saving intervention, 
and all the grand truths he proposes to the faith of his 
people for their comfort in their pilgrimage. It is a trust in 
his works as a living Saviour working out the everlasting 
righteousness which grounds all his positive gifts to his 
saints. This was done during his earthly life, and is found 
among the things which he triumphantly proclaimed com- 
plete on the cross. Saving faith is not only a belief that 
these works were done, and that these gracious words were 
spoken, but a trust in both words and works themselves. 

(4.) Saving faith, as directed not only on the Saviour as a 
person, but upon all the truths which God has been pleased 
to reveal in his word, is a double energy of moral and intel- 
lectual qualities, and yet has no special merit in itself con- 
sidered. et us endeavor to understand each of these three 
predications concerning faith. 

Faith contains definite moral qualities, as must result from 


124 Girrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


its being a product of the heart and will, obedient to the 
moral laws imposed upon the process of its production. It 
works by love; it purifies the heart; it overcomes the world. 
The exposition of faith as a product of the will and the moral 
expressions of the will, has shown how the heart is con- 
cerned in the genesis, and modifies the nature of faith. It 
has been seen how hostile feelings towards the person re- 
ferred to would mar the testimony to his wisdom and good- 
ness. It has been seen how love to sin and aversion to 
holiness would balk the testimony to the hatefulness of the 
one, and the loveliness of the other. All moral and religious 
truth is subject to the same hostile and transfiguring 
influence of an unholy heart. The character of God, the 
nature of his law, the sovereignty, the freedom, and infinite 
magnanimity and tenderness of his grace; every statement of 
fact, every exposition of doctrine, every truth, whatever he 
has declared, has been distorted from their true significance 
by this deadly energy of depraved feeling. The field of 
view in the intellect has been discolored by this disturb- 
ing influence, and all that is seen through it is not seen as it 
is. As the green leaves of a tree seen through the deep 
crimson surface of a colored glass will be seen in foreign 
and not in its own real hues, so all moral and religious 
truths will be more or less warped out of its real meaning by 
the influence of the unholy heart. The seer will see, but 
not perceive; he will be as blind to the true significance of 
the truth as if he could not see at all. This is what is meant 
by the spiritual blindness of the mind, which is represented 
by the Scriptures as coéxisting and entirely compatible with 
any amount of intellectual energy. When the record asserts 
the beauty of holiness, the unbelief of the depraved heart 
will deny it and assert the contrary. When it asserts any 
truth which crosses the inclinations and tastes of a perverted 
will, unbelief, determined by the depraved affections, will im- 
peach the conclusion. 


FAITH. ; 125 


It is manifest, then, that to enable faith really to accept 
the whole testimony of God in his word, the depraved heart 
must be changed. Until this is done the misguiding crimson 
in the glass will make the leaves of the tree appear in similar 
colors, and the seer will never believe the leaves are green 
or anything but what he sees them to be. Does he not see 
they are crimson and not green? Is he not perfectly honest 
in so seeing, and in so saying? He is entirely unconscious 
that he is looking through a perverted medium of depraved 
feeling, and until he is awakened to the discernment of his sin, 
he will see no error in his views. But if his heart can be 
changed, then he will be able to see and believe aright, and ac- 
cording to the real nature of thetruth. Saving faith, then, is 
strongly qualified by the right moral apprehensions of a 
heart rightly qualified by the grace of regeneration, and 
without this qualification of this particular grace it can never 
exist in a human soul. “With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness,” and this faith works by love. If the princi- 
ple by which it works is love, it can only exist in a carnal 
heart by the precedent implanting of the force which moves 
it. Unbelief is the datum of an unholy heart, and saving 
faith is the datum of a regenerate and holy heart. 

Saving faith is also qualified by the intellectual qualities 
which enter into all faiths; but in this species of faith these 
intellectual qualities are given by a mind peculiarly energized. 
All faiths are in part the issues of mental activity. Faith is 
the belief of testimony and the acceptance of ‘things as true. 
This implies the action of the understanding in judging the 
testimony and in apprehending the thing to be believed. 
There is no dispute about this point. Incompetent mental 
action will result in credulity and in error, and men are not 
slow to see and censure the intellectual work which falls 
short of a rational standard. But the intellectual energies 
which enter into saving faith spring from a mind itself under 
peculiar influences. This is evident from what has already 


126 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


been said touching the influence of the perverted will on the 
views of the understanding, and the necessity of a change of 
heart in order to justness of view and rightness of belief. 
This effect on the mind is called in the Scriptures “ enlight- 
ening the eyes,” and “opening the eyes of the blind.” That 
extraordinary effect which moral evil has produced on the 
discernment of the understanding, by which it sees, yet does 
not perceive, presents one of the most extraordinary of all 
the phenomena of mind. There is no doubt in any human 
intellect, for example, of the certainty of the fact, and the un- 
certainty of the period, of that strange mystery of death. 
Men walk perpetually under a liability of the most strange 
and striking character; they know it absolutely; yet practi- 
cally it is apprehended only as a distant possibility, and 
under colors which disguise the grandeur and pathos of the 
situation. It is seen, yet not perceived. Sin is intellectu- 
ally apprehended as an evil, yet is felt to be agreeable, and 
the evil is not discerned. This disablement of the power of 
perception by the influence of the depraved will can only be 
removed by a peculiar power exerted upon the disordered 
faculty which produces the disability in question; and when 
this is done, the power of perception is restored to the un- 
derstanding, and. the eyes of the blind are opened. The in- 
fluence of this restored energy of the intellect in the produc- 
tion of saving faith will then be felt. 

Saving faith, however, in spite of the moral and intellec- 
tual qualities in it, and although it is “the fruit of the Spirit,” 
has no special merit or excellence in itself. It performs high 
offices in the scheme of redemption: we are justified by 
faith, we walk by faith, faith gives power to prayer, and leads 
into the comforts of hope; yet it does all this merely as an 
instrument, and not by any virtue of its own. Faith is pow- 
erful only because it mediates the grace by which all the 
wonders of faith are accomplished. There is a righteousness 
of faith, not because faith constitutes or creates it, but 


Fatru. 127 


because it conveys it. Faith works by Jove, but is distinct 
from the love that impels it. Faith is distinctly pronounced 
to be less than charity. Faith believes God and trusts in 
him; but while the refusal to do this would involve great 
guilt, doing it is only compliance with strong obligation, and 
involves no special merit. Faith, in a word, has been ap- 
pointed as the mere instrument for the action of grace; it is 
of faith that it might be of grace; and all the triumphs of 
faith are due to the grace it conveys, and not to itself. It 
appeals to power outside of itself, and thus confesses its own 
weakness. It appeals to the righteousness of Christ, and 
thus confesses the want of it in itself. It appeals for all 
things to an outward source, and thus confesses its own bar- 
renness. It is merely the empty hand stretched out to re- 
ceive all the gifts needed to save an impoverished soul. It 
is not without a measure of spiritual excellence, for no gift 
of the Spirit is utterly wanting in it; but it is mainly consid- 
erable from the values it conveys, not in its own. As the 
main instrument of grace, it ranks in value chief of the graces; 
as an intrinsic value, it is below love, and in the same rank 


_ with hope, joy, gentleness, and other fruits of the Spirit. 


(5.) Saving faith is described in the Scriptures as a principle 
by means of which the power of different kinds of truth is 
drawn out, and thus becomes an instrument of sanctification 
of the second remove, and a regulating force over character 
and action. The grace of the Spirit is the efficient of sanc- 
titication ; the truth is the instrument nearest to the effect; 
and faith, which elicits the force of the truth, is the second 
instrumentality in producing it. Faith is defined as “the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen.” If a man is informed that his house has been burned 
and his family destroyed, if lhe did not believe it, he would 
feel no distress, even though the report might be true. On 
the other hand, if he did believe it, he would be overwhelmed 
with grief, even though the report might be false. Faith in 


128 GiFrrs To UNBELIEVERS. 


the one case would give substance and reality to what is false ; 
in the other, unbelief would strip truth of its power. It is 
evident that such a principle is full of power in. this direc- 
tion, however undistinguished for moral merit. This capac- 
ity of realizing truth and bringing out its force will operate 
different effects, according to the nature of the truth thus 
realized by faith. Threatening truth thus apprehended will 
produce fear; hopeful truth will produce joy; promises will 
yield expectation ; commands will produce obedience. Faith 
thus will cause offers to be accepted, a person to be trusted, sins 
to be surrendered, and warnings to be taken. Faith will 
energize and produce all the various passions of the heart. 
Noah was moved by fear to the building of the ark. Abra- 
ham, by hope to seek a city without foundations. Joseph 
made his bones the seal of a promise of deliverance to his 
people. It is powerful to mould character and animate 
activity ; to breed hope, and throw wide open the realities of 
the eternal state revealed in the record. Faith thus becomes 
the instrument of all Christian comfort, as well as of all 
progress in the conformity of character to the divine image, 
and of conduct to the divine will. 

(6.) This saving faith is represented under some aspects so 
apparently paradoxical as to create a feeling of perplexity 
and sometimes of irritation in constraining it. But the 
paradox is only in appearance, and the consistency with 
truth and justice can easily be made to appear. It has 
already been seen that the absurdity, as it appears to many, 
of a command and requirement to believe in spite of the 
strong dependence of faith upon evidence, is vindicated from 
the charge, and shown to be exactly appropriate from the 
relation of the will to evidence, and from the relation of moral 
law to will. The paradox is only apparent, not real. In like 
manner, this faith is declared to be beyond the capacity of 
the soul in its natural condition, and yet it is justly required 
to be exercised. This statement appears, not only to be 


FaAtru. 129 


paradoxical, but unjust. The vindication is very simple. 
There are two kinds of inability to action, one of which does 
exempt from responsibility, and the other actually increases 
it. The one is the inability of a paralytic to walk; the other 
is the inability of a drunkard to keep sober. The one in- 
ability lies outside of the will, and is not subject to its con- 
trol, or to the jurisdiction of moral law, to command or pro- 
hibition. The other lies in the will, and consists in its 
depravity, and is, therefore, under the jurisdiction of law, and 
subject to command. One man may not be able to attend to 
his business because he is sick, and another because he is 
drunk. The common-sense of mankind adjudges one to be 
blameless, and the other to be blameworthy; it sees the in- 
capacity of one is the proper object of pity, the incapacity of 
the other the just object of censure. The incapacity of the 
carnal mind to exercise faith is of the latter kind; it lies in 
the will, and not out of it; it consists in the strength of the 
perverted affections of the will, which disable the streneth of 
the evidence and the power of the truth. The stronger the 
evidence, the more censurable the perversity of feeling 


_ which disables it. Since it has been abundantly shown that 


the will is deeply involved in the genesis of faith, according 
to the common judgments of mankind as well as of Scripture, 
it is perfectly useless to impeach the decision, that when faith 
is disabled by the power of perverted affections in the 
will, responsibility is properly imputed for unbelief or mis- 
belief. 

When this aversion of the will is so strong as to defy con- 
trol, the notion of responsibility increases in proportion to 
the strength of this aversion, and cannot possibly be dimin- 
ished, much less destroyed by it. When that aversion is so 
powerful as to defy the control of the man himself, and no 
power but the power of God himself can govern it, and that, 
too, in some of the highest acts of almighty power,. the 
notion of responsibility is carried to the highest conceivable 

9 


130 Girrs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


point, instead of being destroyed. The obligation of duty 
remains unimpaired by the disability of a perverted will to 
obey it. This apparent paradoxy may receive another ex- 
pression. Faith is the gift of God, and yet the duty of man. 
It is the gift of God because he alone can break down the 
resistance of the perverted will. It is the duty of man be- 
cause no moral obligation is broken down by any amount of 
vigor in the aversion to discharge it. Faith being an issue 
of will, and under just obligation of moral propriety, cannot 
possibly be discharged ‘from full responsibility, because of 
aversion in the will to accept the truth, that is, to delzeve, 
The more powerful that aversion, the more complete the ina- 
bility it creates and constitutes, the higher the responsibility 
is carried, instead of being weakened, and much less of be- 
ing destroyed. The two teachings of the Christ are both 
true, both consistent, and one true because the other is true; 
“ye will not come unto me that ye might have life ;” and ‘‘no 
man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him.” He alone can ‘‘make us willing in the day 
of his power.” 

(7.) Saving faith is represented under a variety of forms in ~ 
the testimony of God. It is called a looking. “ Look 
unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, saith 
the Lord; for I am God, and there is none else.” lLook- 
ing is a common expression of reliance or trust; a ser- 
vant looks to his master, a soldier to his commander, a pa- 
tient to his physician, a client to his counsel. ‘look to you 
to do it,” is an ordinary expression of holding to responsi- 
bility for a trust committed. It 1s called a coming. “Come 
unto me all ye who are weary and are heavy laden.” ‘The 
same notion of applying for help and going for assistance, 
appealing to the power and good-will of another, is expressed 
by this phrase. Faith is called acceptance, the receiving of 
a gift: “take the water of life freely.” It is spoken of as the 
giving of a gift: “my son, give my thy heart.” Confidence 


FAIru. 131 


is often spoken of as something given. It is described as 
eating, as drinking, as going, as resting, as learning, all of 
which carry the notion of resorting to something apart from 
self for strength and comfort. Saving faith is the act of the 
whole human soul accepting all the truths contained in the 
testimony of God, with a realizing sense of their truth, and 
trusting in that glorious person who is the grand centre of 
all the truth thus revealed. It is the fruit of the Spirit, the 
gift of God in the exercise of his sovereign and distinguish- 
ing grace, the greatest of all his inward gifts to a lost sinner. 


It is the gift of eternal life.“ He that believeth shall be 
saved.” 


CHAP DE RAYS 
THE NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 


‘Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” —Jesus of 
Nazareth. 


ite HESE words introduce us to one of the great 
peculiar doctrines of the Christian faith. They 
were spoken by the great founder of that faith, and carry all 
the weight of his character and authority in the establish- 
ment of the doctrine taught. Nicodemus, an officer of high 
rank in the religious orders of the temple system, had been 
profoundly impressed by the wonderful works done by the — 
Nazarene prophet. His intellectual convictions had been 
determined by them, that Jesus was a teacher sent from 
God, He became eager to inquire more fully into. the nature 
of the message which had been sent by him to the people of 
Israel. But knowing the intense prejudice, which even at # 
that early stage of the prophet’s ministry had taken posses- — 
sion of the religious leaders of the nation, and not yet haying 
come under the power of the truth, he sought a secret inter- — 
view with the great teacher. This secrecy indicated the — 
imperfection of his faith; his coming at all showed the 
strength and sincerity of his convictions. His introductory 
words reveal no hesitation or doubt in the judgment he had 
formed on the evidence of the miracles. “Rabbi, we know 
that thou art a teacher come from God: for no ‘man can 
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.” | 
The intellectual conviction was absolute; it was actual know- | 
Jedge, not any inferior grade of belief. The reasoning which 
led to this conviction. was both sound and _ irresistible; j 
miracle was demonstration of a divine commission. The reply — 
182 


Tor NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. Loo 


of Jesus, on a first inspection, seems to be somewhat irrele- 
vant, or its relevancy is not immediately apparent. “Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can- 
not see the kingdom of God.” But in point of fact the reply 
was not only to the point, but happily led forward into a 
further development of the ideas involved in his mission, 
and opened the way to settle the principal purpose which 
the Jewish ruler had in view. 

At that time the Jewish mind was in a feverish ferment 
about the coming of Messiah, and the kingdom which he 
was about to establish. The time indicated in the prophe- 
cies was universally understood to be at hand; and to find 
out what this demonstrated messenger of God had to say in 
relation to these intensely exciting facts was the end sought 
by Nicodemus. ~The reply of Messiah was, then, substan- 
tially this: your conclusion is rightly drawn; the wonderful 
exhibition of divine power does prove me to be a teacher 
come from God; but a similar exhibition of the same power 
is necessary to enable any man to understand the nature, or 
perceive the advent, of the kingdom he is about to set up. 
Nicodemus was astounded; in common with all other Jews 
he expected a kingdom as cognizable by the unaided natural 
faculties of men as the kingdom of David had been in the 
life-time of the royal soldier and poet, who was the pride of 
Israel. He was confounded to have his unspoken inquiry 
about the kingdom of Messiah answered by an assertion 
that made a miraculous or similar exertion of divine power 
necessary to see it when it came, or to enter into its privi- 
leges. He rejoined in vague confusion, “‘ How can a man be 
born when he is old?” His conceptions were altogether 
below the plane on which Jesus was leading him up. Jesus 
went on to explain, prefacing his explanation and defence 
with an expression of wonder on his own part, that one who 
held the high official position of the master or chief of the 
ruling teachers of Israel should be utterly unacquainted with 


ito Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


the spiritual nature of that kingdom of God whose neces- 
sary first foundation and form was to be laid in the very 
soul—in the thoughts and affections of man. Nicodemus 
had suggested the intolerable mystery of the doctrine in- 
volved in the impossibility of the case. Messiah at once 
replied, it is indeed mysterious, but not impossible ; mystery 
attaches to many a thing which is nevertheless real; the 
wind is an example; but although no man can tell the spot 
where it rises in the vast sea of the surrounding air, nor the 
line where it stops, no man ever questions its reality. He 
then goes on to explain that the kingdom of God laid its 
foundations in the inward nature of man; no one could be a 
true servant and subject of the King who did not serve him 
with the heart, and, therefore, the evil heart must be changed 
if it ever sees the nature of the kingdom, or becomes a true 
servant of the King Messiah. The alleged impossibility 1s 
set aside by a reiteration of the fact, and the positive asser- 
tion of the absolute necessity for it. 

9. This teaching of our Lord sets at rest all rational doubt 
about this wonderful doctrine of Christianity. The astonish- 
ment of Nicodemus, and the firm assent of Christ to the 


fact, both demonstrate the assertion of something marvelous _ 


as necessary to the true apprehension of the kingdom. No 
attempt is made to disguise the fact, and all human attempts 
to obscure the teaching will be in vain. It plainly affirms an 
effect must be exerted on the soul, which can only be ade- 
quately described as a new birth, a being born again. It is 
elsewhere described as a new creation, and as a resurrection 
from the dead. It is positively assigned as the exclusive et- 
fect of divine will and power ; it is a being born, not of man, 
nor of the will of man, but of God. Tt is ascribed solely to 
the energy of the Holy Ghost. The very term, born of the 
Spirit, points clearly both to the agent of the change and the 
radical nature of his work. As the word born, descriptive of 
the mode of man’s creation and introduction to the condi- 


* 


Tor NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 135 


tions of his existence in the present life, is used to describe 
the effect, something equally radical in its nature and effects 
must be involved in the analogous change. The natural 
birth puts the human being into the full possession of his na- 
ture as such a being. If not born, all the preliminary con- 
stituents of his being are nullified, and his nature is not only 
not completed and put into his possession in order to serve 
its purposes, but it is absolutely prohibited and destroyed. 
The new birth also involves the creation and the grant of a 
new nature adjusted to its own uses and ends. Natural 
birth introduces to new conditions of life, new laws of action, _ 
new responsibilities, new associations, new possibilities of 
both pleasure and pain, new powers of action, and new capa- 
bilities of influence. It makesanew man. It not only makes 
a new being, but introduces him into the adjustments for its 
action. In lke manner, the effects of the new birth are 
equally radical and pervading, giving a new nature, making 
a& new man, as an apostle calls it, and introducing this new 
nature into a new life adjusted to it, to new views, new feel- 
ings, new affections and desires, new hopes, new fears, new 
energies, new rules of conduct, new objects of endeavor, 
and new results of the new action determined by this great 
change. 

It is obvious from these positive and most peculiar state- 
ments that all attempts to construe the Christian doctrine of 
regeneration out of all its high mysterious and spiritual sig- 
nificance must be altogether incompetent interpretations of 
the language used to describe it in the sacred record. To 
construe it as nothing more than the modifying influence 
exerted upon thought and feeling by the written words of 
the Scriptures, identical in nature with the influence exerted 
by the written words of any other author, is not only inade- 
quate as an explanation of the terms used, but is positively 
repeated by the assertion that the gospel must come, not in 
word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost. To say it 


136 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


is only the change in the external relations affected by a ~ 
visible rite, which not only can be administered by man, but 


which in point of fact can be administered by no one 
but man, is not only absolutely in contravention of the posi- 
tive ascription of the effect exclusively to the will and power 
of God, but it is to convict the terms used in Scripture to 
define it of a want of candor or of clearness in making the 
definition. All attempts to identify this change with the 
mere ordinance of baptism, or with the mere modifications 
of thought and feeling produced by the influence of written 
words, are useless. All attempts to construe it as a mere 
change in any outward or merely legal relations of a man 
are failures, complete in abortiveness. It is a change in- 
ward, not outward, a change of nature, not of relations. It 
is not a change of mere state, defined by relations to an 
outward order or law of action. Even when contemplated as 
an inward change, it is not merely a change of Aabdzts, or 
even of some modifications of character, for these may be 
affected by human energies and associations, by human 
will and moral culture. It goes deeper than any such influ- 
ences can reach. It is a profound movement on that inner 
moral energy which determines thought and feeling—which 
forms character, which dictates action, and thus creates 
habits. It goes to the bottom of the deep radical disorder 
of the human heart. | 

To define the nature of anything is not easy, because it is 
one of those primitive conceptions given by the intuitive 
energy of the mind, easily enough apprehended as existing, 
but not comprehensible to define. We readily understand 
that it is the nature of a fruit tree which determines the 
kind of fruit it produces. From this it is easy to discern 
that it is due to difference in the nature of the trees that one 
produces one kind of fruit, and the other another kind. But 
what the nature in each of the trees actually is, or what con- 


stitutes the difference in their nature, no wit has ever dis-. 


a aS ee a, 


* 
Z 
_ 

7 


THe NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. LOC 


sovered or will ever discover. The fact is known; the 
method or the causative quality called the nature of the tree 
is beyond analysis and definition. All we know is, that the 
nature of a fruit tree is an indefinable force in the tree, 
which results in the production of a certain fruit. The na- 
ture of an animal is a certain characteristic force or disposi- 
tion which dictates certain modes of action peculiar to the 
animal. Nature is a force which grounds and regulates en- 
ergy. There is thus a nature in man which determines cer- 
tain results, variously modified as that nature itself is modi- 
fied. Man has a physical nature which determines certain 
physical functions in his life. He has an intellectual nature 
which determines certain intellectual functions and activities. 
He has as the chief distinction and the master principle of 
his whole being, a moraé nature, which yields moral results. 
To control the manifestations of his nature, physical, mental, 
or moral, that nature in its characteristic marks must be 
controlled. The stream of energy must be regulated by regu- 
lating the fountain from which it flows. The grand doctrine 
of Christ, then, touching the regeneration of man’s moral 
nature, is in strict accordance with the laws and analogies of 
nature, in all its various departments. There is nothing 
strange or eccentric in it. 

3. The incompetence of any other view of the real mean- 
ing of regeneration will be still more clearly demonstrated 
by an examination into the nature of the evil to be re- 
moved. This will prove the absolute necessity of a pro- 
found change in the moral condition of the human soul. 
The declaration of our Lord is, Ye must be born again. This 
affirms a necessity absolutely uncompromising. A view of 
the difficulty which grounds this necessity will vindicate his 
words, and show the utter folly of any conception of regene- 
ration less radical than a total change in the very nature of 
a sinning being in order to his salvation. 

The first fact which illustrates the nature of the evil to be 


138 GiIFrts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


removed before man can be saved is, that every creature or 
form of existence in the universe must conform to the law 
of its being in order to meet the ends and offices of its being. 
In non-sensitive existence, non-conformity to the law of its 
nature must produce disorder and confusion. In sensitive 
beings, non-conformity must produce disease and suffering. 
A fish in the air, or a bird in the water must suffer and ulti- 
mately die. In beings conditioned to conform to the moral 
distinction, non-conformity must result in moral corruption 
as well as in suffering. ~The law is universal. Man as a 
moral being has been adjusted to moral law, just as an intel- 
lectual being he has been adjusted to the laws of mind, and as 
a physical being he has been adjusted to physical law. The 
moral law which has been established over the moral crea- 
ture, man, is not merely confined to his positive transient 
actions, but extends its jurisdiction over all the interior and 
seminal energies from which his actions flow: It extends 
over all feelings, motives, passions, purposes, affections, and 
desires, and over all the permanent states of moral feeling 
which constitute what is called character, and which, as per- 
manent expressions of the will, involve moral responsibility 
as truly and justly as a determined purpose or any other 


transient act of the voluntary faculty. In order that man, 


then, should conform to the law of his being, it is not merely 
necessary he should conform to it in his outward actions, 
but that he should conform to it in his whole interior nature, 
in the ground of all those interior energies of his spirit which 
are embraced in the requisitions of the law, and are capa- 
ble of a moral complexion, either good or bad. There is no 
such thing as securing the well-being of man unless he is 
brought up to conformity with the grand law which asserts 
its supremacy over him in every particular in which that law 
claims his conformity, whether in his acts or in his nature. 
The law requires him to be good as well as to do right; its 
jurisdiction is over his nature in all that constitutes it, as 


—— se oe ee ee 


‘ 
——~ Tre rr. 


Tur NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 139 


well as over his actions; and if his nature has become mor- 
ally corrupt it must be purified. 

The next proof of the necessity of regeneration is found in 
the actual condition of his moral nature. Man has sinned ; 
he sins continually. That is to say, he has transgressed the 
erand law of his being, and lives in the constant transgres- 
sion of it with the disastrous effects that might have been 
expected. One of the most disastrous of these effects is the 
actual result produced on his own moral nature. This result 
is a fact in human nature, proceeding under the operation of 
a regular law of cause and effect, and admits of no more 
doubt than any other fact observed and ascertained in the 
nature of the human being. It is one of the old and long 
established facts in the nature of man, that criminal action 
of every species exerts a reactionary influence on the nature 
of the criminal actor himself, corrupting his feelings and 
rendering him more liable to repeat the criminal act than he 
was before its commission. He grows worse and worse the 
more his criminal acts are multiplied, the particular kind of 
criminal act increasing the inward criminal tendency to that 
species of evil. Sin in act breeds sin in the soul, and a de- 
praving influence on the moral nature within keeps step 
with all the active uses of the depraved impulses of the un- 
holy will. This peculiarity of human nature is a datum, not 
merely of the word of God, but of ordinary observation and 
experience, which can no more be questioned or denied 
than that a man will be burnt if he applies fire to his flesh, 
or be fouled if he falls into a cess-pool. The teachings of 
Scripture are identical with the teachings of experience, as 
far as the latter are able to go. The difference lies in the 
fact that the Scriptures go farther in the explanation of the 
evil, analyze it-‘more deeply, and point out more fully the ex- 
tent, nature, and final results of those effects which criminal 
action has upon the moral nature of the criminal actor. The 
lesson of experience is enough of itself to disclose the abso- 


140 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


lute necessity for a vital change of some sort in the depraved 
moral nature. The teaching of the Scriptures only makes 
that necessity reveal itself in a still more impressive form. 
The moral element in human nature pervades the whole in- 
tellectual structure of man, just as color pervades the trans- 
parency of glass or a pure fluid, and thus regulates its 
quality and the view of all that is seen through it. This all- 
pervading moral energy is that which adjusts man to that 
eternal distinction of right and wrong which determines the 
great moral law under which he is bound. That distinction 
inhering in his acts makes them good or bad; inhering in 
his inward moral energies makes them and him either good 
or bad. This judgment, that the actor himself must be either 
good or bad, is one of those universal common-sense judg- 
ments which men always form of each other from the mani- 
festations of their conduct. Men always go back of a moral 
act, whether good or bad, and look at the disposition, tem- 
per, and moral character which gave origin to the act. The 
act is attributed to a moral energy within, and is accepted as 
a revelation of the energy from which it springs. An ex- 
plosion of temper is taken to reveal a permanent character- 
istic in the nature of the man, and he is judged to be a hot- 
tempered man. All acts are judged in the same way; they 
are held to disclose a trait or capacity in the fixed moral 
energies, answerable in moral quality to the moral quality of 
the act that springs from them. The law holds of all acts or 
energies whatever; it is equally true of good and evil acts; 
all are held to be the expression of an answerable quality in 
the permanent characteristics of the man. Nowif this in- 
tuitive judgment of a moral nature in man, lying back of his 
acts, and regulating their moral complexion as true expres- 
sions of itself, is a true diagnosis of human nature, the infer- 
ence is irresistible, that any effectual reform of man as an evil- 
doer necessarily requires the reform and purification of the 
permanent moral energies which determine the character of — 


THe NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 141 


his outward conduct. This is the invincible decision of logic 
and common sense. To purify the stream the fountain must 
be purified; the stream can never be effectually cleansed as 
long as a polluted head-spring is perpetually pouring pol- 
luted water into the channel. The teachings of Messiah coin- 
cide with this conclusion of reason and experience. Man 
cannot gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. It is 
vain to purify a cup or a platter unless the inside, as well as 
the outside, is cleansed. 

But the Scriptures go deeper in their discernment of tke 
effects of sin on the nature of the sinner. They speak of a 
spiritual life. Wife is a capacity to exert certain energies, 
distinctive of the kind of life in view. Spiritual life is a 
capability of moral energies, embracing the whole sphere of 
moral obligations; not merely the moral obligations which 
embrace the present life, and all the relations of man to his 
fellow-man, but moral obligations as they embrace every de- 
gree and possibility of moral energy, and man’s relations to 
God as well as to his fellow-creatures. This implies a far 
broader and higher form and degree of moral energy than is 
disclosed by the lower system of relations limited to the 
creature. /Zoliness is but another name for this spiritual life. 
Morality, or the moral quality, in common parlance is usually 
confined to the relations between creatures. Holiness in the 
same usage of language is applied to the relations between 
God and the creature. Holiness is, in fact, moral excellence 
in its completed form, developed by a right state of all the 
relations and affections of the creature to God, and flowing 
over from this right state towards God upon all the relations 
and affections towards all other beings, raising the moral 
quality determined by those relations into a higher and 
purer form. This state of relation and feeling towards God 
is the supreme controlling moral force over all the moral 
states and feelings of the creature. It is the key-stone of the 
arch which holds all other moral states in their proper place. 


142 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


It is the controlling light which alone gives the proper color- 
ing and complexion to all other states, feelings, and determi- 
nations of the moral element of the human soul. Without 
holiness all moral quality is more or less depraved. All the 
cultured moral virtues of the moral element in human nature 
are fatally defective without this all-important coloring of 
genuine holiness. Holiness is the principle of real life, 
beauty and power in all moral quality. Abolish holiness 
and the arch is broken, the beautifying light is withdrawn, 
the principle of life is destroyed, and a spiritual death, the 
ruin of the capacity to energize purely, at once ensues. 
There may be a certain grade or degree of moral excellence 
in human character, determined by culture in his relations 
to his fellow-men; but it is wretchedly incomplete in its best 
development, and wanting in that element which is essential 
to its completeness. It is somewhat like what painting 
would be if the red ray in the coloring was annihilated; its 
perfection as a thing of beauty would be gone. This is the 
character of all moral excellence in the natural man; it is 
divorced from that element which alone gives life and per- 
fection to moral energy. A figure may be moulded in wax 
or carved in marble to a degree of ideal excellence, superior 
in charm to any living being; but it wants life; and a living 
dog is better than a dead lion. Such is the diagnosis of the 
moral nature, and the laws that regulate it, as given in the 
Scriptures. They teach the absolute essentiality of holiness 
to all true and sound moral energy. 

They follow up this teaching bya necessary corollary; 
they teach that the effect of one single criminal act is to 
destroy this principle of spiritual life. This does not mean 
that the moral energy in the soul is destroyed, but depraved. 
It. does not mean that man becomes incapable of any moral 
act, incapable of any moral perceptions, or feelings, or voli- 
tions, or deeds, but it does mean that he becomes incapable 
of any moral view, feeling, or action which is not defective 


; 


i 
~ 


: 


Tur NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 143 


in some degree. The vital element of holiness is eliminated, 
and that ingredient being wanting, even the very highest 
form of natural virtue is essentially defective in obligatory 
moral excellence, and is, therefore, a species of actual sin. 
That lofty element which springs from the right state of the 
relations and feelings towards God-holiness necessarily dies 
under the reaction of one criminal act. The reason of it is, 
that even one sin, as a breach of divine law, casts off his 
authority, insults his sacred claim to obedience and respect, 
and necessarily arms his justice to uphold them all. One 
sin breaks all kindly relations between God and the offender; 
both parties are thrown apart; the transgressor is alienated 
from God, and God is angry with the wicked doer. The 
necessary and inevitable result is the loss of holiness, the 
distinction of the spiritual life, which, as we have seen, is 
the determination of right relations and feelings of the crea- 
ture towards God. ‘This is the only element which can give 
real and complete moral excellence to any basis of moral 
quality, whether thought, word, deed, or inward moral 
faculty. The only capability of moral act which is left in 
the transgressor is of an inferior degree, from which the 
necessary ingredient of all true and complete moral excel- 
lence has passed away, without the possibility of its restora- 
tion by any means within the reach of man’s own competency. 
Hence it is that the loss of holiness, which results even from 
a single criminal act, is called spiritual death ; it is the loss of 
spiritual life, the capacity of spiritual energies which condi- 
tions all the moral. powers of the soul in the same way in 
which other kinds of life condition the energies peculiar to 
each of those kinds of life. Moral depravity in its higher 
degrees results from repeated criminal acts. Holiness is at 
once destroyed by a single criminal act. 

_ The relation between holiness or spiritual life and mo- 
rality, and the dependence of both on right relations to God, 
may be illustrated by the relation between the principle of 


144 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


life and the substance of vegetable existence. Take a tree, 
for example, as it stands growing on its stock, it has two dis- 
tinct elements in it, the substance of its matter, and a certain 
mysterious principle in it which we call its “fe. This life in 
the wood is dependent on its connection with the living roots 
and stock in the ground. All life, whether in a vegetable or 
animal, is an impenetrable mystery. It seems to be an in- 
comprehensible force which creates certain capabilities which 
are entirely dependent upon it. So long as its mystic life 
abides in it it is capable-of growth and of putting forth the 
leaves and fruits peculiar to its nature as a tree. Cut it 
away from its stock, and the wood becomes dead. It ceases 
to be capable of growth or bearing, and at once becomes 
subject to a reverse law which will bring it through many a 
state of change down to decay and final ruin. For a time its 
usefulness is not destroyed; it can be used as fuel, or wrought 
into many useful and beautiful forms, for a time. But only 
for atime. The principle of decay was introduced the very 
moment when its life was destroyed by severance from its 
vital stock, and it can only end in final destruction. In like 
manner holiness is the life principle of all moral excellence, 
and this principle has its vital connection in God. If that 
connection is severed, it dies instantly, and can never recover 
it, any more than the mass of noble matter in some great 
leaf and nut-bearing tree can recover itself after the axe has 
passed between it and the vital stock on which it grew. It 
may exist for a time in noble and beautiful shapes; it may 
be made useful to an extent absolutely inestimable in the 
domestic and mechanical uses of earthly society. But it is 
dead; its noblest manifestations are “dead works.” Morality 
without holiness has lost the principle of its peculiar life. 
Tt has no longer the vital energy which made it capable of 
spontaneous growth; it can only develop at all under 
patient and protracted culture. It is still capable of use, 
change into happy modifications, great polish and cultured 


a 


Tur NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 145 


beauty, like the dead wood of its analogue; but it is dead; 
it is under the law of decay from the moment when its pecu- 
liar life departed by its severance from God; and however it 
may be saved to its uses by careful processes for its protec- 
tion, it will go to decay at last. Mere morality is developed 
out of the relations between the creatures; it seeks for justice 
and well-being for them; but makes no provision to secure 
justice for God. All regard for him and his interests is left 
out, and thus the very life and saving element of its peculiar 
nature is destroyed. The noblest exhibit of unsanctified 
virtues is fatally defective for this reason. A son is com- 
manded by a noble father to go do some noble work; he 
does the work; but deliberately repudiates all regard to his 
father’s authority in doing it, and does it from the mere 
sense of his own dignity. All cultured human sentiment 
will pronounce the noble work marred by selfishness, pride, 
and repudiation of just authority. Morality without holiness 
is morality without perfection, and this perfection is depend- 
ent wholly on right relations to God, the source of all life. 
Thus the invincible necessity for regeneration; a profound 
moral and spiritual change in the very nature of man as a 
moral and spiritual being is revealed. Holiness must be re- 
stored to his nature ; the principle which is essential to give es- 
sential and perfect excellence to every basis of the moral quality 
in him must be restored, or he can never be delivered from the 
power of moral evil. Not only must the moral depravity of his 
moral nature, as it is disclosed to observation and experience, 
be removed, but in order to this deliverance, and also on 
account of its own intrinsic value and necessity, holiness must 
be restored. If sinning man is ever to be saved, he must 
be saved from all the effects of his sin, not only from its 
effects on his relations to the law, but its inward effects on 
his own soul. Salvation without regeneration is a contra- 
diction in terms. To talk of saving a sinner, and yet leay- 
ing the depraved fountain of his moral energies, a spring 
10 


146 Girrs to UNBELIEVERS. 


which must necessarily control the whole current of his 
energies as long as it exists, unregenerated and unpurified, is 
to talk of doing that which is absurd and impossible. Ve 
must be born again. The declaration of Christ rests on im- 
pregnable grounds. 

A second line of investigation will more broadly illustrate 
this necessity. A more specific inspection of the particular 
effects of this depraved moral condition of the moral element 
in human nature will confirm the doctrine of this necessity 
beyond all rational doubt. This moral element, pervading, 
as it does, the whole mental structure, will, as a matter of 
course, exert its influence, jirst, on the views of the mind; 
second, on the affections and desires of the heart; ¢hzrd, on 
the determinations of the will; fourth, on the perceptions 
and power of the conscience; fifth, on the action of all 
the faculties of the mind, on the imagination and the 
fancy, on the sense of wit and humor, on the processes of 
reason and judgment; and siath, on the positive actions 
of the conduct. In a word, it will regulate all the activities 
of human nature, and color them with its own complexion 
to a greater or less degree. A depraved moral nature 
will more or less pollute the views of the mind and the 
affections of the heart on all kinds of subjects, even on 
those considered remote from morals and religion. It will 
taint the sense of wit and humor, the play of fancy, the 
action of memory, the perceptions and authority of con- 
science, the positive determinations of the will, and the 
actions of the life. A pure moral nature will exert the oppo- 
site effects on all these various faculties and energies of the 
soul. 

Take the first of these specifications—the perverting influ- 
ence exerted on the views of the undertsanding by an unholy 
moral nature, and then inquire how such perverted views are 
compatible with the idea of salvation. Under such a deadly 
influence the character of God is necessarily misconceived ; 


THE NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 147 


it appears to be an object of dread and dislike. His holiness 
seems to be oppressive; his justice, severity. His law is dis- 
torted to view, and instead ot appearing, as it is, the consum- 
mate expression of all wisdom, purity and goodness—the 
embodiment of the broad and fruitful distinction of right—it 
seems to be the harsh and hateful expression of an almighty 
tyranny and injustice. To this perverted understanding, the 
grace of the gospel, the love of the great Messiah, the infi- 
nite patience and benignity of the Holy Ghost, and the rich 
provisions of the covenant of redemption, seem to be the fan- 
tastic creations of a dreamy fanaticism—utterly without at- 
traction toa rational understanding. All the grand evidences 
which support this fabric of revealed religion are utterly 
empty of force to such a mind, and all the peculiarities of 
doctrine and prescribed service are construed as legitimate 
objects of unsparing scorn. The feverish temper of the hate 
with which the whole system is regarded is clear in the con- 
sciousness of every such sin-misguided intellect. How can 
such a system be embraced by a genuine and hearty accept- 
ance? How can the character of God awaken love in a 
mind so perverted? How can salvation—which in part signi- 
fies communion and friendship with God, and in part, con- 
formity to his law—be a possible thing without a change, a 
radical change, in such views, and in the perverted moral 
qualities of the soul which originates and learns such 
views? It is simply impossible. 

Take, again, the influence of a perverted moral nature upon 
the affections of the heart. They are all more or less de- 
praved, and just so far forth are disabled from performing 
their true functions and working out their true ends. They 
become eccentric, exaggerated, and unsafe to indulge. They 
love what they ought not to love; they hate what they ought 
not to hate. They thus come under the rebuke of conscience, 
and that indulgence results only in mischief, in enhancing the 
moral corruption from which they spring, and in producing 


14.000 Girrs to UNBELIEVERS. 


a misery which is the natural outcome of perverted nature 
and violated law. A corrupt heart is the greatest source of 
evil in the universe of God. The heart is omnipotent over 
conduct, character and happiness. It dictates action. It 
controls character. It determines happiness or misery. As 
a man loves, so will he act in seeking the gratification of his 
desires. As a man loves so is he; his character is deter- 
mined by his affections. HH he loves war, his character is 
construed as warlike; if he loves money, his character is con- 
strued as avaricious; if he loves pleasure or idleness, his 
character is construed as frivolous. The influence of the 
heart is all-powerful over happiness. If all he likes is re- 
moved out of his reach, his misery is secured. If he is able 
to indulge his attachments, his satisfaction 1s secured. With 
a heart opposed to the character of God and the employments 
of his service it would be impossible to be happy, even in 
heaven and in the beatific vision of God and his glory. To 
make heaven itself endurable to a sinful soul is an absolute 
impossibility ; hell itself would be more tolerable. The bold 
French infidel who said he had rather spend eternity in hell 
than in eternal sing-song in heaven, was true in the expres- 
sion of the necessary demands of an unholy heart. Nothing 
could illustrate the necessity of a change of heart with more 
irresistible energy of demonstration than the fact that the 
almightiness of God himself could not contrive to make even 
heaven endurable to a sinful soul. Even infinite power can- 
not control an essential impossibility. 

The same line of investigation pursued through all the ap- 
plications of a depraved moral nature, to the reasoning pow- 
ers, the judgment, the fancy, the sense of humor, the per- 
ceptions of conscience, and the positive volitions and actions 
of aman, would bring out the same result. To rescue all the 
powers of human nature from perverted uses, it is indispens- 
able that the great ruling cause of their perverted action 
should be removed by regenerating grace. Salvation is a 


~~ a ee ee “ in 


ee a 


THE NECESSITY oF REGENERATION. 149 


contradictory predicate to a conscience perverted, a mind 
blinded, a heart depraved, a will debauched, and a life full of 
those activities which are necessarily determined by a pol- 
luted moral nature. It is as perfectly a contradiction to talk 
of salvation in sin as to talk of ease to one in agony, or 
breath to one in the very fever of a deadly disease. All the 
evidence procurable from the nature of man, and the laws 
that regulate it, proves the absolute truth of the declaration 
of our Lord, ye must be born again. 

4. The necessity of the thorough purification of the de- 
praved moral nature of man, by a real regeneration, is de- 
monstrated by another line of proofs, separate altogether 
from man himself. It is shown by the essential implication 
of the interests and peace of other beings beside himself. 
The Scriptures reveal to us the existence of a holy and most 
noble race of creatures who dwell in the presence of God, 
and do their faultless service before his throne. It is neces- 
sary to the safety and interests of this grand race of angelic 
intelligences that man should be purified, if he is to be ad- 
mitted into their society when the mystery of death is accom- 
plished upon him. The same great law of moral and social 
influence which makes man here so powerful in moulding 
the character of his fellow, seems to pervade the universe. 
The angels are subject to this law; they are naturally liable 
to fall, as we know from the fatal history of the fallen mem- 
bers of that great fraternity. Their safety would be im- 
periled by unholy associations in their regular existence. 
Their happiness, too, like ours, is strongly dependent upon 
their social relations. The character of their companions 
must be congenial, or their peace would be disturbed. If 
no regeneration could be gained, and if man with his low in- 
stincts, polluted passions, and tendencies ever reaching down- 
ward, should be introduced into their holy society, disgust 
and horror would soon banish every sentiment of satisfac- 
tion. The music of the rejoicing host would be marred by 


150 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the discords of the unholy rabble. The feelings of the 
stately seraphim would be kindled into horror by the rude 
ereeting of some debauched and distempered villain reeling 
along the streets of the celestial city. If God cares aught 
for the integrity and comfort of that brilliant and holy host, 
who have served him for ages, without fault or flaw in their 
service, it will be absolutely necessary to do one of two 
things: either to keep unholy souls out of their company, or 
else to purify their polluted natures, and thus fit them for 
this glorious society. The very sight of a depraved being 
there would be a signal of distress, and silence would reign 
in every celestial group until the unclean spirit had gone by 
and disappeared. It is not wonderful that the Lord of 
heaven said to the sinners on the earth, ye must be born 
again. 

5. If anything more were wanting to vindicate the declar- 
ation of the text, it will be found in the culminating fact 
that not only the honor of God himself as a holy moral 
being, and the interests of his moral government, but his 
own personal blessedness and peace, are involved in this 
issue of the purification of man as the essential condition of 
his salvation. In every conceivable way God has given ex- 
pression to his intense abhorrence of all moral evil. Sin is 
the abominable thing which he hates. Now suppose him to 
receive into his presence and unalterable favor a creature 
covered with this unendurable pollution. What would be 
the judgment formed of a holiness which, after all its mani- 
festations of invincible aversion to sin, could still receive an 
uncleansed sinner into abiding favor? What would be 
thought of his veracity in declaring that aversion? The 
very integrity of infinite perfection stands as the guarantee 
and pledge of the necessity of regeneration. One grand aim 
of the divine administration is, the restraint and punishment 
of moral evil. Consequently salvation, without regeneration 
of an unholy nature would overthrow the fundamental prin- 


THe NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 151 


ciples and purposes of the government of God. Not only 
his personal integrity, but the essential principles of his 
administration, affirm the necessity of regeneration. But 
further still, if any additional assurance could be given, it 
ean be found in the fact that the very peace and personal 
blessedness of the infinite God are dependent on the puri- 
fication of a sinful soul, on the supposition that it is saved. 
He is infinitely holy, and his joy is grounded on the free and 
unembarrassed action of his own personal qualities and affec- 
tions.” The presence of sin is an offence in his eyes; and the 
only circumstance which makes sin endurable in his presence 
is his liberty to deal with it as it deserves. Sin is in his 
presence here in this world, and in the regions of the lost; 
but in both places he is dealing with it in consistency with 
his own character and his own claims. He is not fettered or 
embarrassed by it; his own nature has free play in his rela- 
tions to the evil. But for sin to exist and run riot in his 
presence under a perpetual guarantee of immunity, and God 
himself be placed under the necessity of eternally curbing 
the natural and free action of his own character in dealing 
with it, would ruin his peace forevermore. What more do 
we need to impress the awful, inexorable necessity of regen- 
eration, than the conception that without it the serene and 
unassailable peace of the infinite Lord must give way, and 
he, the anthor of all good, must become blasted with misery. 
The alternatives are, the misery of the sin-fettered soul, or the 
misery of God, or the reconciliation of the contending issues 
by regeneration. Ye must be born again. 

6. From this view of the absolute necessity of the new 
birth, how inexpressibly dangerous are any mistaken views 
of the nature of regeneration! In view of the intrinsic and 
all-comprehensive necessity of a real and fundamental change 
in the moral element of human nature, how fearful is the 
error and the peril of any mistake on a matter so vital! To 
make regeneration synonymous with baptism, or as depend- 


152 GIFTs to UNBELIEVERS. 


ent only on this visible ordinance; to construe it as a mere 
change of relations, and not of intrinsic moral character; to 
make it a mere modification of thought and feeling, produced 
by the words of Scripture, after a manner exactly analogous 
to the influence of any other written composition, 1s to err 
in a vital point. To object to the doctrine as visionary, or 
fanatical, or enthusiastic, or absurd, is to cut the very ground 
away on which all rational or scriptural hope of eternal life 
rests. In the progress of this discussion we hope to make 
satisfactory explanation of every objection to the doctrine of 
regeneration, and to vindicate the solid ground of hope in 
the gospel assurances of the possibility and actual reality of 
a true and effective spiritual regeneration. But inasmuch as 
the main purpose of this little treatise is not so much the 
euidance of the opinions as the movement of the heart to 
practical action, let us, in the meanwhile, search our own 
hearts, test our Own experiences, sound the depths of our 
own hopes, affections, and fears. Let us seek by humble and 
fervent prayer the blessing of God in the gift of his Spirit. 
It is very certain that if any of us can gain what Paul re- 
joiced had been given to him, the real illumination of the 
Holy Ghost, there will be no room to question the reality of 
his control over the thoughts and feelings of the soul, and 
his consequent demonstrated power to produce the change, 
the necessity of which is asserted by our Lord in terms so 
clear and solemn, and demonstrated by considerations too 
obvious to be denied, and too powerful to be rationally re- 
sisted. 


(Gis te Wie inion) AY lel 
THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 


‘“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are 
passed away; behold, all things are become new.”—Paui to the Corinthians. 


HE nature of the change, called the new birth, the new 
| creation, regeneration, conversion, and the spiritual 
resurrection from the dead, may be inferred in general terms 
from the nature of the mischief which makes it a necessity. 
The necessity of the change is grounded in the depraved 
condition of the moral nature of a sinning being. Generally 
defined, the nature of regeneration is a change of this de- 
praved condition into an opposite or holy condition of this 
moral nature in sinning man. The specific consideration of 
the itemized features and distinctions of the change will 
furnish us with a special definition, or, at least, a more exact 
and comprehensive knowledge of what is involved in it. 
The teachings of the word of God are full and clear on the 
subject; they describe its nature, specify its precedent 
changes, delineate its effects, explain its evidences, and defi- 
nitely affirm the agent by whose power it is effected. In 
the progressive development of these teachings, the various 
misconceptions which exist touching this vital point of the 
Christian faith may be corrected. These misconceptions 
vary in different, and even opposite, directions, from a purely 
rationalistic to a ritualistic, and to a fanatical construction 
of the doctrine; all of which will stand exposed by the dis- 
play of the real doctrine of the Scriptures. The radical 
nature of the change is logically involved in the radical 
nature of the evil to be removed; and salvation to a sinner 
is a contradiction in terms, unless all the effects of his sin 

153 


154 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


are remeved. ‘To save him from one, and leave him to the 
unchanged operation of another, is to still leave him to de- 
struction. To qualify the legal effects of his violation of 
law, and rescue him from its penalty, and yet leave him to the 
unchecked effect of sin on his own soul, is not to save, but to 
insure his ruin. The redemption work of Christ is designed 
to control the one; the offices and work of the Holy Spirit to 
control the other. 

To enable us to form a clear notion of the nature of re- 
generation, we must first attempt to form a clear notion of 
the real nature of the mischief it is intended to cure. The 
general conception of moral depravity, and its effects on the 
different faculties of the soul, must be reduced to its actual 
contents before ajust notion of it can be formed. 

There is a distinction in the nature of things, called true 
and fatse, which is irresistibly recognized by the intuitive 
energy of the human understanding. When the distinction 
of true is discerned in a thing, it is accepted as a reality, a 
something that is. When the distinction of false is dis- 
cerned, it is accepted as something that is not. There is a 
distinction in things, which is named right and wrong, which 
is also intuitively discerned. This distinction is apprehended 
differently from the distinction between true and false. The 
distinction between right and wrong, which we call the moral 
distinction, is felt to be obligatory; it has the force of law. 
If it is disregarded, the notion of criminality at once springs 
up. If it is not disregarded, but obeyed, the notion of right- 
ness in conduct emerges, and a sentiment of approval. The 
nature of man is adjusted to these distinctions. His nature 
is threefold: it has a physical, an intellectual, and a moral 
department. By his physical nature he is adjusted to the ma- 
terial condition of his existence. By his intellectual nature 
he is adjusted to the grand distinction of trwe and false ; when 
he sees a thing to be true he is furnished guod hoc with 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. 155 


knowledge; when he sees a thing to be false he knows that 
that thing is no subject or matter of knowledge. The vast 
powers and attainments of understanding are all adjusted to 
the distinction between the true and the false. By his moral na- 
ture he is adjusted to the great fundamental and all-powerful 
distinction between right and wrong. He is able to see it, 
to feel its obligatory force, to impress it on his own active 
energies of every sort, and what is still more startling, on 
the fixed elements of his own nature. When he impresses 
the distinction of right, he feels asentiment of complacency and 
approval. But when he impresses the distinction of wrong, 
a feeling of disapproval and criminality irresistibly emerges. 
This judgment of criminality is always the datum of wrong. 
No matter to what basis it may attach, a wrong word, a wrong 
act, a wrong desire, or a wrong permanent disposition is al- 
ways a criminal word, a criminal act, a criminal desire, a 
criminal disposition. No other judgment of wrong is possi- 
ble but a judgment of criminality. Sin is moral wrong, and 
always involves criminality. The ground of regeneration is 
then disclosed in its true nature. A depraved moral nature 
is that essential and permanent moral energy in man which 
adjusts him to the great moral distinction infected with wrong, 
and therefore essentially criminal, and making the man @ 
criminal being. Regeneration is the alteration of this wrong- 
tainted moral nature, making it 7/g/t, changing its essentially 
criminal quality into a quality commanding approval, inspir- 
ing holiness into it in the place of san. 

Regeneration takes effect on the very nature of the man, 
on the permanent moral energy that is in him. The ascrip- 
tion of sin, or corrupt moral quality, to the nature of man is 
disputed as an impossible predication by some. ‘These the- 
orists restrict sin to positive acts, on the zround that the will 
must be concerned in sin, and that the volitions of the vol- 
untary faculty can only be implicated in action. This view 
is repudiated by the intuitions of the understanding, and by 


156 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the universal experience and judgments of mankind. The 
theory assumes that there is no action of the will except the 
positive determined purposes which precede action. But 
the intuitions of the mind discern a scale of actions in the 
will, rising from mere impulse to desires and to more stable 
affections, and then to determined volitions, or positive pur- 
poses to act. ‘To each of these expressions of will responsi- 
bility attaches on a variable scale of degrees. An unholy 
desire may never be followed by the positive determination 
to gratify it, but it involves moral responsibility, because it 
is an expression of will-desiring wrong. This judgment, 
ascribing moral quality to acts of will other than positive 


actions, is alike the doctrine of Scripture and the doctrine of 


common sense. 
The denial of moral quality, carrying the notion of respon- 


sibility to the fixed moral elements in the nature of man, is 


equally repudiated by these two great authorities. The will 
conditions moral quality in an agent; but all forms of volun- 
tary energy do it, and the moral element in human nature is 
the will in its fixed quality and stable disposition. That 
there are such permanent states or habits of the will is af- 
firmed by the word of God, and by the experience and the 
consciousness of mankind; and because they are true ener- 
gies of the will, the fixed complexion of those energies, even 
when in repose, the universal judgments of mankind confirm 
the award of the Scriptures in attaching a true moral responsi- 
bility to them. Men are pronounced to be “by nature chil- 
dren of wrath.” “The heart is said to be deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked.” Such is the judgment 
of God in the case. The testimony of the human intellect 
on it can be evoked by an inspection of the fact that men 
do ascribe permanent moral characteristics to each other, and 
.of the method by which they discover what they call these 
permanent traits of character in their fellows. 

It is a simple fact of common experience that men do con- 


paddies: ene \ 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. TT 


strue each other according to the moral distinction of right 
and wrong—as being good or bad men; not merely as doing 
good or bad acts, but as being themselves good or bad—as 
having good or bad characters; by which they mean perma- 
nent traits of disposition and feeling. The mode of expres- 
sion shows that they regard the imputed traits as modifica- 
tions of the will, and therefore they do not hesitate to hold 
men responsible for their characters—for these permanent 
traits of their dispositions. Men reach the conception of 
these fixed and stable traits of the personal nature of their 
fellows by an inspection of acts or other visible expressions 
of the spirit within. They go back of the act, or other out- 
ward expression of thought and feeling, and judge the moral 
complexion of the energy from which that act or expression 
flowed. An exhibit of hot or malicious temper is held to 
reveal a hot or malicious temper in the man, and he is 
judged to be such a man even in his unexcited moments. 
The evil energy is known to be in him, even when not in ex- 
ercise. A dishonest man is so construed even when he is 
dealing fairly; men know that the disposition to take advan- 
tage when he can is a permanent quality in him, even though 
in a given case he may be acting honestly. The confidence 
in character is always demanded in confiding trusts, because 
men well know that the permanent traits of the disposition 
are constant sources of corresponding actions. The judg- 
ment of mankind is a matter of common experience, that men 
are good or bad in themselves, as well as that they do good 
or bad things—good or bad in character—in the fixed quali- 
ties of their disposition as well as in their acts. This judg- 
ment of character is in fact the most important thing in 
forming our moral estimates of men. Acts are of use in one 
main line of their utility as disclosures and proofs of the 
permanent traits. The full significance of acts is not always 
immediate ; they are sometimes studiously disguised to con- 
ceal the real character. They sometimes depend upon char- 


158 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


acter previously disclosed for their full significance. An 
act regarded as springing from a sudden temptation, or an 
unusual impulse, is never so seriously condemned, or graded 
so high in guilt, as an act which is regarded as the product 
of a fixed quality in the actor. This superior regard to char- 
acter rather than to acts is rightly felt; for an act done is a 
thing of the past; it can never be repeated; but a perma- 
nent disposition to such acts is a perpetual fountain of them. 
This fixed moral quality in the nature of man, lying back of 
his acts and determining their complexion, is the object of 
regeneration. This depraved moral nature in which that evil 
quality inheres is the substratum on which the regenerating 
energy of divine grace is exerted. To save a bad man—bad 
in his nature as well as in his acts, he must be purified in 
his inward being, in order that all his energies may be rightly 
ordered. 

This moral element in human nature pervades every part 
of his spiritual and intellectual being, just as a coloring per- 
vades the transparency of glass or a pure fluid. Take a 
simple illustration, which may give some conception of the 
interaction created, and of the mode in which regeneration 
will affect all the powers that are implicated. A vase of 
clear glass filled with pure water may be taken as an ana- 
logue of the intellectual and moral elements of human nature ~ 
in their mutual relations to each other. The light passes 
through the untainted medium unaltered in its native hue; 
its flavor is pure and sweet; it is at once healthful and plea- 
sant to drink. The transparency represents the intellectual 
part of human nature. The bright uncolored sheen of the 
pure fluid represents the moral element pervading the intel- 
lectual in all its parts, in a state of sinless purity. But now 
infuse a coloring matter into the water. The crimson stain 
pervades the entire mass of the fluid; it has become totally 
depraved ; not that the color has become as deep in its shade 
as it can be; but that it pervades every part of the altered 


THe NATURE oF REGENERATION. | 159 


element, and changes all its qualities. The nature of the 
water as a fluid is still the same; it remains a fluid; but its 
nature as a wholesome and untainted fluid is altered, and its 
utilities have altered with it. The light still passes through 
it; its transparency is still in it; objects can still be seen 
through it; but under different aspects from before. The light 
as it passes through the transparency has caught the hue of the 
coloring which pervades the medium, and all the objects 
seen through it are covered with these altered colors. The 
value and uses of the fluid have changed; its taste is no 
longer sweet; it is no longer safe to drink; it has become 
bitter and poisonous. Now, to restore that water what would 
be necessary? Simply to withdraw the coloring matter which 
has depraved it, if that be possible. That being done, the 
stainless brightness returns to the fluid; its sweetness is re- 
stored; its healthful qualities are renewed, and recover it to 
all its uses; the light passes through it in its natural hues; all 
objects are seen through it in their natural colors; the water 
is regenerated. 

Now, we may conceive something of the intellectual and 
moral elements in human nature, in their relation to each 
other. ‘The moral pervades the whole intellectual structure 
and modifies it in every faculty and in all its energies, just 
as the pure colorless sheen or the depraved crimson coloring 
pervades the transparency of glass or water, and controls 
all that is seen through it. This pervading moral force not 
only controls absolutely the powers of conscience and the 
will, but qualifies strongly memory, judgment, imagination, 
fancy, the powers of intuition and reasoning, and the sense 
of wit and humor. It pervades the whole mind, and quali- 
fies the activity and the uses of every part of it. So long as 
this moral element remains sinlessly holy, and measurably 
as it does not descend into the graver degrees of depravity, 
the light of truth passes clear and straight through-the un- 
derstanding. The heart is pure; its affections are rightly 


160 Girrs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


ordered; it loves only what it onght to love; it hates only 
what it ought to hate. All the energies of the will, from 
simple desire to determined purpose, are rightly ordered and 
guided. The conscience performs its functions perfectly. The 
memory is as tenacious of moral and religious notions as of 
any other notions. The judgment and the powers of reason- 
ing are not disturbed by any misguided intuitions, nor en- 
feebled by any depraving habits. The play of the fancy, and 
the sense of humor are all instinctively pure. The whole ener- 
gies of the man are regulated into holy action by the influence 
of this all-pervading moral element in a state of sinless purity. 

But now suppose that pervasive moral element is become 
depraved. Its relation to the intellectual element remains, 
and its influence is still controlling over allits energies. The 
only difference is, that it was once pure in itself, determining 
purity in its effects; now, it is bad, determining badness in its 
effects. Just according to its own degree of badness it will 
determine an answerable degree of badness in its effects on 
all things subject to its influence. Just as an added strength 
or degree in the colcring matter which pervaded the water 
in our illustration will increase its power over the light that 
passes through it, over the bitterness of its taste, and the 
virulence of its poison, so will increased degrees of depravity 
in the moral nature of man control more strongly the whole 
intellectual and active powers of the soul. The perception 
of truth, especially of moral and religious truth, will be quali- 
fied by it. All the functions of conscience will be affected 
by it. The memory of moral and religious concepts will be 
enfeebled by it. The sense of wit and humor will be modi- 
fied by it; a low debased type of man will see wit and humor 


in relations the coarseness of which would nullify all sense — 


of these pleasing suggestions in a higher type of moral char- 
acter. ‘Che affections of the heart, in a word, all the degrees 


and manifestations of the will, are more directly qualified by | 


moral evil, and all the positive external actions of the con- 


ns eee a | 


— =. 


a ee Ee ee 


Tue NATURE OF REGENERATION. 161 


duct are determined in sin by the depraved quality of this 
regulating moral element of human nature. That element 
must be purified, or all hope of purifying the man himself or 
the course of his career must be abandoned. Upon this de- 
praved condition of the moral nature the energies of divine 
grace, as revealed in the offices of the Holy Ghost, are 
exerted. Regeneration is simply the change of quality in 
this ruling moral nature of the soul; it is the renewal of the 
will; it is the change of the heart; it is the new creation of 
the nature of a sinning creature. If there is no such thing 
as a regeneration of just this sort, man is hopelessly lost. 
One of the grandest and most disastrous effects of his sin 1s, 
on this theory, irredeemable. The light thrown by this stern 
fact in the very nature of man, upon all other theories of 
regeneration than that of a new creation by the power of 
God, is overwhelming. Any scheme of religion, looking to 
the salvation of the soul, which does not provide for the real 
purification of the depraved moral nature is worse than 
worthless; it is destructive. 

It will be seen at once from this view of the evil to be re- 
moved, that some change as radical as that which the Bible 
declares to be necessary must be accomplished. How shall 
it be done? But that same word of God which declares the 
necessity of the change provides for it. It points out the 
change as it is actually wrought, and the great agent by 
which it is accomplished. It tells us there is such a thing 
as being “born of the Spirit,” as being “created anew in 
Christ Jesus,” as being “made alive from the dead.” It de- 
lineates the wonderful transformation, lays down its condi- 
tions, describes its effects on the consciousness and on the 
character, marks out its evidences, and portrays its influence 
on the peace and comfort of its subject. We propose to fol- 
low up the teachings of the Scriptures, and the correspond- 
ing testimonies of Christian experience, on some of the lead- 
ing features of this great gospel doctrine of regeneration. 

11 


162 Girrs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


We shall endeavor to illustrate it, first, as a moral, not a 
physical change; second, as a real, and not a supposititious 
or imaginary change; third, as a supernatural effect by the 
power of the Holy Ghost, and not a natural change by the 
mere force of ideas, or a mere ritual change by the force of 
observed rights, administered by official men ; fourth, not a 
change of faculties themselves, but a change of capabilities 
in faculties already existing; and ji/th, as an unwersal change, 
affecting the views of the understanding, the affections of the 
heart, the energies of the conscience, the activities of the 
will, the imagination, judgment, the sense of humor, memory, 
and the powers of reasoning; in a word, affecting the whole 
man, and every expression of the energies in him, in accord- 
ance with the declarations in the sacred record, “old things 
are passed away; behold, all things have become new. This 
wide result is produced by affecting the quality of that radi- 
cal moral force which pervades the whole mental structure, 


and determines its energies for good or evil, just as it is 


itself holy or depraved. This moral force, seated as at 2s in 
the will, in the permanent, yet responsible, states of tts affec- 
tions, shows how thoroughly responsibility for this status of 
the heart is grounded in the very nature of the case. When 
this moral element is depraved, this universality of its supre- 
macy disclosed the range, and explains the meaning of the 


terms total depravity, which are used to describe it. They do 


not mean that man is as bad as he can be, for no limit to the 
possible degree of moral corruption has or can ever be de- 
fined in words, or reached in fact; they mean that, under in- 
finite varieties of degree in the coloring, the whole moral 
element in human nature is depraved, producing an answer- 
able influence on every faculty and energy of the soul in 
variant measures. 

First, in illustration of the nature of regeneration asa moral, 
not a physical change, we need not spend time after what has 


been said in explanation already. The evil to be removed is. 


Tar NATURE oF REGENERATION. 163 


moral; the change effecting that removal must be necessarily 
also moral. The coloring in the transparency is to be altered, 
not the transparency itself. The understanding remains the 
same, only the disturbing elements in it are removed. The 
capacity of affection remains in the heart, only the nature of 
its capacity is altered, so that it now loves what once it hated, 
and hates what it once loved. The testimony of the Scrip- 
tures is uniform, that the purpose. of the inward applica- 
tion of grace to the human soul is to purify the evils found 
in it. It is the washing of regeneration; it is the renewal of 
the Holy Ghost; it is the creation of a new heart; it is the 
destroying of the dominion of sin. If reference is had in 
the reproach of regeneration as a change wrought by phys?- 
cal power on the part of God, it is only necessary to say, we 
cannot comprehend the methods of God’s power in any of its 
exercises; but we do know that he did originally create man 
upright and pure, and there does not appear any reason to 
impeach the exercise of the same power to create man anew 
unto holiness. The same power may be exerted again, no 
matter what name you may give it, for the same purpose. 
The one case is as conceivable as the other, and if there 
was no impossibility in the one, there can be none in the 
other. The notion that it is impossible to create holiness is 
a foolish confusion of the exercises of a holy nature with 
that nature itself. God does not directly produce the intel- 
lectual exercises of an intellect created by him; but that does 
not impeach his ability to create the intellect itself. In the 
same manner he can create a soul with a holy nature, 
with a capacity of holy exercises, with a holy principle in it, 
capable of energizing in holiness; and this is all that is neces- 
sary in the regeneration of the soul. In the regeneration, or 
new creation, he uses a secondary instrument—the truth— 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Deal- 
ing with a nature already existent, he respects its fundamen- 
tal constitution; but while using the truth, he exerts a power 


164 GiFrts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


which is described in the strongest terms as the exceeding 
ereatness of his power towards those who believe. Perhaps 
to create anew, without jar or trespass on the existing powers 
of the creature, may be even a higher energy of power than 
an original creation conferring powers. At all events they 
are equal; the power employed is creative power; and that 
is fully competent to God, call it physical power or what not, 
and may be equally employed in an old or new creation. In 
what manner he puts the new spiritual life into the soul 
dead in trespasses and sins, none can possibly tell. The 
manner in which he creates a holy nature is as mysterious as 
the manner in which he creates any kind of nature, whether 
animal or vegetable, but not one whit more so. It is enough 
for the human soul, anxious to know how to get rid of the 
deadly stain upon the moral nature, to know that God can 
create him anew in Christ Jesus, and restore the lost image of 
his own glory. As to the manner in which the grace of God 
will do this, the receiver of its wonderful deliverance 1s con- 
tent to be ignorant; he is content with the fact; and he is 
fully satisfied to leave the mode of the fact to him who pro- 
bably alone can comprehend it. It is the grandest and most 
joyous of all thoughts, to a mind conscious of the nature and 
the awful energy of its own inward sinfulness, to know that 
in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, the almighty power of God 
is actually available as an agency of human purification and 
as the guarantee of human integrity. 

The second point which we wish to illustrate is, that regen- 
eration is a real, and not a supposititious or imaginary change. 
The value of this wonderful work of divine grace is condi- 
tioned absolutely on its reality; and that reality, if demon- 
strable, possesses another value additional to its value as a 
ground of hope to the individual soul sighing under its con- 
scious defects—in its force as a perpetual demonstration of 
the truth of the whole system of Christianity. This is a 
species of evidence, distinct from prophecy and visible miracle, 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. 165 


reproduced in innumerable instances in every successive 
generation of men. The gospel claims to be not only a 
system to be believed, but a power to be felt, and as such it 
is a power to be manifested. It claims to produce certain 
effects. These effects are described; the conditions on which 
they occur are stated ; and the effects, their antecedent con- 
ditions, and their subsequent manifestations, constitute a 
strong test of the claim which is asserted. Suppose it had 
asserted that a certain physical effect, visible to the eye, 
should be exerted on the body of every one who accepted 
its terms—say that a golden glory should illuminate the face, 
or play as an aureole of lambent fire around the head of 
every one who experienced its power. Such a claim would 
be an irresistible test of its truth. If it were true, we should 
see the golden glory in the face, or the pale splendor of the 
aureole encircling the head. Ifa single instance were seen, 
it would not only prove the individual to be a Christian, but 
it would demonstrate the whole claim of the gospel. If 
those instances were multiplied into thousands and millions, 
they would only intensify the demonstration. Now it is un- 
questionable that mental phenomena are as real and as 
capable of proof on their own peculiar evidence as any 
material phenomena whatever ; the facts of consciousness are 
as true and as demonstrable as any other facts. The fact 
that man has a memory is as true and as capable of proof as 
the fact that he has a nose or a mouth. The fact that man 
suffers or enjoys, that he likes and dislikes, is as true and 
provable as that he has hands and feet, and is capable of 
using them. The existence and the connections of mental 
facts, their conditions and laws of existence and succession, 
are as capable of observation and description as the condi- 
tions and regulating laws of any other facts. 

Bearing this in mind, let us remember that the gospel does 
distinctly claim to exert a profound influence on the human 
spirit—to produce a radical and permanent change on its 


166 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


controlling forces. It not only describes the nature of this 
change, but the conditions under which it will arise, and 
under which alone it will arise. It describes its antecedent 
and consequent peculiarities. It discriminates its character- 
istic features, points out its effects in a variety of ways, and 
details its evidences. Now, if there is any truth in this claim 
of power to produce these results in this order and connec- 
tion, under these terms and conditions, it is certainly 
capable of demonstration. If there is no truth in the claim, 
that, too, can be demonstrated. Here is a bold and auda- 
cious claim of power, of living and practical power, on the 
minds and radical energies of living men, which challenges 
investigation and proof. The case affords the fairest of 
opportunities to test its reality that any reasonable inquirer 
can desire. There is the record of Scripture, specifying its 
claim, with all its connected terms and the characteristic 
marks of its asserted work. The Christian claimants to an 
experience of this power are to be found by thousands every- 
where the gospel has been preached. The seal and its im- 
pressions can be coérdinated and compared without difficulty. 
Let the inquirer take up the investigation and search for the 
verification or non-verification of the claim in the facts of 
human experience. It has been justly considered a triumph 
of skilled scientific knowledge, when an astronomer affirmed 
that a planet, hitherto unseen and unsuspected, must be 
found in a certain quarter of the heavens, and when search 
was made it was found. In this case the fact verified the 
record. A like challenge is made in regard to this claim of 
the great Christian faith. The witnesses can be found of 
every character, in every Christian nation, in every gen- 
eration, of every rank, age, and sex, of every degree of intel- 
lect, from the humblest to the highest grade of talent—from 
the plainest observers of facts in their own minds to the 
highest and most profoundly disciplined metaphysical intel- 
lects which ever scrutinized the phenomena of the mind. 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. 167 


Many skeptical minds deride this grand doctrine of spiritual 
regeneration as a mere delusion. But surely they must 
admit that a Christian is just as competent as any one else 
to notice the changes in his own consciousness, to observe 
the movements of his own thoughts and feelings, and to 
report his observations. It is certainly difficult to imagine 
why observations cannot be as accurately made, and as truly 
reported, upon religious feelings as on any other feelings. If 
one of these objectors should candidly confess that his feel- 
ings were opposed to these peculiarities of the gospel, he 
would take it hard if any one should refuse to believe his 
report upon the states of his own mind. Now, supposing 
that an entire change should take place in his feelings, 
and instead of disliking he should learn to love and ad- 
mire these peculiarities, why should not his report of 
his feelings in this case be as reliable as his report in the 
other? If this be so, why may he not take the reports of 
others to be as reliable as his own? The change is registered 
more or less clearly and distinctly in the consciousness; why 
cannot a Christian reliably report it? If he can accept as true 
the statement of the facts, and the formulation of the laws of 
the association of ideas, or of the more recondite phenomena of 
mental action from a metaphysical philosopher, why not the 
observation and statement of the facts and laws of religious 
feeling by such Christian philosophers as Baxter, and John 
Howe, Archbishop Leighton, and Charles Simeon, Jonathan 
Edwards, Luther, and Archibald Alexander? If he would 
accept the facts, not an explanation of the facts, of their 
parental affections from plain men and women, why not take 
the facts of their religious affections with equal credit as 
true to their felt consciousness and experience? The fact 
of a thorough change of thought, feeling, desire, and affec- 
tion, hope and fear, motive and rule of action, can be relia- 
bly attested by any plain mind, as well as by minds of a higher 
grade, and there are millions of all grades to attest the reality 


168 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


of regeneration on the terms specified to condition it. The 
formulation of the phenomena, the coérdination of the facts, 
the evolution of the order, connections, and conditions of the 
facts, have been made over and over again by many of the 
highest minds of the human species. The demonstration of 
the reality of a true regeneration of the human heart on the 
terms and conditions of the gospel cannot admit of a ques- 
tion in the face of the experience of the church of God, 
multiplied to the contentment of any possible conditions 
of human inquiry. The claim of power in the gospel is de- 
monstrated to the highest degree by the proof of cts exercise, 
according to its own specified conditions. Regeneration, ac- 
cording to those conditions, is a real, and not an imaginary, 
change. 

The third point to be illustrated is, that it is a supernatural 
change effected by the power of the Holy Ghost. The method 
of proof will be the combination of the evidence as given in 
the Christian experience with that given in the Scriptures. 
The experience of Christians shows that the change is effected 
by a power from without, and the Scriptures inform us what 
agent exerts it. We think it can undoubtedly be shown that 
the results reported in consciousness, and certified by the 
appointed tests, are wrought by some agency independent of 
the mind itself; and if this independent agency can be shown 
to act, it will be easy to accept the testimony of the sacred 
record that this agency is the Spirit of God. The phenom- 
ena occurring according to the recorded account of the Spirit’s 
procedure will definitely prove, not only the externality of 
the agent, but who he is. We affirm this supernatural ori- 
gin of regeneration, jirst, as against the theory of it as a 
mere natural change wrought by the force of mere religious 
ideas, just as other written or spoken thoughts modify char- 
acter, on the one side, and on the other, as against the theory 
of it as a mere ritual change wrought by the sacraments ad- 
ministered by human agents 1n an official character. 


Tart NaTuRE oF REGENERATION. 169: 


The testimony of the Scriptures is clear and positive that 
it is not wrought by the will of the flesh, or the will of man, 
but of God. As against the theory of a mere natural change 
produced by the modifying power of the mere truth revealed 
in the word of God, the testimony is clear and positive that 
the gospel must come, not in word only, but in demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit and of power. As against the theory of 
this grace as given by the sacraments, it is clear that, so far 
as adults are concerned, neither of the two sacraments can 
be lawfully administered until this change has already taken 
place—until repentance and faith, the fruit and proof of 
regenerating grace, have been credibly evinced. The sacra- 
ments, then, cannot be credited with producing the change. 
The declaration that our Lord made to Nicodemus, that we 
must be born of water and of the Spirit, clearly settles a dis- 
tinction between what is effected by the water and what is 
effected by the Spirit; in the birth as determined by the 
one, and the birth as determined by the other. There are 
various constructions put upon the word water as used in 
this remarkable passage. Some construe it as referring to 
the sacrament of baptism; others, as referring to the word or 
truth which is the instrument employed by the Holy Ghost 
in sanctification of the soul. This last is borne out to a 
certain reliable degree by the phrase “washing with water 
by the word,” and by Jewish usage. That baptism is re- 
ferred to is also sustained to a certain probable degree by its 
recognized relation to the visible. church as the ordinance of 
admission to its privileges. But neither of these construc- 
tions give any support to the theory of regeneration by the 
sacraments carrying grace as fire carries heat or ice carries 
cold. ‘That the truth in itself, and by itself, carries no effec- 
tual saving influence is definitely settled by the decisive 
statement, “the gospel must come, not in word only.” The 
truth is the instrument in the hand of the Spirit, who ordi- 
narily never acts without the word; and hence we are said to 


170 Girts To UNBELIEVERS. 


be born of the word of God which liveth and abideth for- 
ever. Hence the word is all-important to the regeneration 
of the soul, not because the word carries the power, but because 
the power never acts without the word. Hence it is very 
probable that the word was alluded to under the metaphor of 
water in the words of Messiah to the Jewish ruler. There is, 
however, no insuperable difficulty in supposing an allusion 
in the phrase to both the truth of the word and the sacra- 
ment of baptism. But if so, this does not by any means 
link the effective power of saving grace to the sacrament, for 
the decisive reason already given, that the lawful adminis- 
tration of the sacrament to any one capable of faith pre- 
supposes the grace of regeneration already bestowed. Faith 
precedes baptism according to the well-recognized law of the 
gospel in relation to all capable of faith; and regeneration 
precedes faith by the necessity of the existence of any kind 
of life to precede the acts of such life. Baptism is, then, 
certainly not designed to carry the grace of regeneration. 
But its relation to the visible church is imperative; and no 
one can see the inside of that visible kingdom, or share its 
privileges, until admitted by the rite of baptism. This appli- 
cation of water is necessary to the grand change of visible 
relations between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of 
Messiah. This change, according to the old Jewish modes 
of thought, may be called a new birth; but to confound thi, 
with the new birth by the power of the Holy Ghost is 
absurd. The difference is clearly discriminated by the two, 
or rather several, fold nature of Messiah’s kingdom. Asa 
visible organization it can only be entered by baptism, a met- 
aphorical birth by water. Asa kingdom within you, it can 
only be entered by a conversion of a rebellious will into true 
obedience to the King; this kingdom can only be seen, 
known, or entered by an effectual new birth of the Holy 
Spirit. It is thus literally true, “except a man be born 
of water and of the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom of 


Tort NATURE OF REGENERATION. LE 


heaven.” This is also true of that form of the glorious 
kingdom called heaven. 

This setting aside of the dangerous and fascinating theory 
of regeneration by the sacraments will be “more effectively 
demolished by the presentation of the positive proof from 
Christian experience of the independent, external, or super- 
natural origin of the manifested phases of regeneration. The 
digression on sacramental grace was too important to be 
omitted, and the facts and phenomena of Christian experi- 
ence demonstrate the falsity of the perilous theory. Let 
us see. 

Religious experience is nothing more nor less than the 
answer and accord of our consciousness to the teachings of 
the word of God. The relation between them is the relation 
between a seal and its impression. One of the most striking 
parts of the diagnosis of human nature in the Scriptures is, 
that it is spiritually blind. This is a conception hard for the 
natural mind to form with any precision or distinctness. 
Conscious of mental vigor, the power of perception, and the 
functions of understanding generally, it cannot take in the 
charge of a spiritual blindness, an incompetence of spiritual 
intuition. But as soon as it begins to deal practically with 
the terms of the gospel, and seeks to comply with them, it 
soon becomes aware that these terms as rules of action, 
spiritual action, are of all things the most mysterious. Faith 
is simple enough; it is simplicity itself, as a mere idea or 
speculative thought; but when the man ¢ries to do it—to em- 
body it in an energy of the heart, it becomes incomprehensible; 
and the mind may struggle for days and months together in 
the vain attempt to comprehend faith as an actual movement 
of the soul. He learns at length that he is blind, and that 
the Bible told him the truth about himself when it told him 
he was blind. Another statement the Bible makes in its 
itemized description of the spiritual condition of the soul is, 
that the heart is hard, harder than the nether mill-stone— 


V2 GiFts To UNBELIEVERS. 


hardened by sin. This, too, is mysterious, especially incom- 
prehensible by persons of a gentle and compassionate nature. 
But the charge is on all men, on the sympathetic as well as 
on the visibly hard and unfeeling. One of these gentler 
spirits is particularly puzzled to comprehend the imputation ; 
but when he begins to try and repent, he soon finds he can- 
not feel as he knows he ought to feel, as he wishes to feel, and 
as he tries to feel. The most advanced Christian never 
outgrows all of this conscious hardness of heart; the more 
his views of the evil of sin expand, the more incompetent 
his feelings towards it appear to himself. The seeker for 
grace suddenly awakes to the consciousness that the Bible 
told him the truth about himself when it told him his heart 
was hard. 

Another statement the Scriptures make about the spiritual 
condition of a sinner is that he is altogether helpless, un- 
able to do anything effectual to extricate himself, and that 
relief will only come when he ceases the impossible effort at 
self-deliverance, and relies on another, trusts in Christ to 
save him. The awakened sinner always, at first, struggles 
resolutely to comply with the terms of the gospel, repentance: 
and faith; but as he proceeds with the effort to save himself, 
the blindness and hardness prove too much for him, and at. 
last he realizes it is true as the Bible said, he is a helpless 
sinner. He now realizes, what the same deep-searching 
witness declared, that he is a lost sinner. All his efforts at. 
self-help have failed; the terrible peril of his state presses 
keenly ; and he feeds that he is really a lost sinner. He has. 
been now brought to the point where he can appreciate the - 
need of a Saviour; and now, as by the further proceeding of 
sovereign grace, his mind opens to the conception of Christ 
as a sinner’s Saviour, his present helper in his time of need, 
the old familiar notion opens with the force of a new revela- 
tion.. He at once ceases the effort to serve himself; he 
accepts the offer of Christ to save him; he trusts in him to 


Tort NATURE OF REGENERATION. Vis 


do it; his only appeal is to this outside resource; and at 
once he is at peace. Relief has come to'him. Now note the 
bearing of all this on the supernatural origin of regeneration. 
Put the facts together: the experimental and well-tried con- 
viction of his blindness, hardness, and helplessness, which 
has come to him in his struggle to save himself; his con- 
scious inability to break his bonds; his distinct cessation of 
the effort to do it; his appeal to the power of another; and 
then the fact that relief comes. The inference is irresistible, 
that he has been helped to this relief by some external and 
independent agency. Where did it come from except from 
without? He is fully conscious of his helplessness; he ceases 
his exertions, not in the use of means, but as endeavoring to 
save himself; he trusts in another to do it for him, and he 
gets what he wanted. The conclusion is irresistible, that he 
has been helped to it, and is in full accord with the great 
gospel doctrine that we are saved by a “faith in Christ,” 
which is “the fruit of the Spirit.” The facts disclose a 
power external to the soul as the origin of its spiritual life in 
regeneration; the Bible tells who the agent putting forth 
this power really is; and the two lines of testimony converge 
on the same conclusion. Christ saves through the agency 
of the Holy Spirit quickening the spiritually dead into spirit- 
ual life, regenerating the unholy and rebellious heart, and 
through this marvelous achievement implanting the germ of 
all the fruits of the Spirit. We must be born again by the 
awful energy of the Holy Ghost, or perish / 


ChebeWig dbo pes MERE 
THE NATURE OF REGENERATION. 


‘‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things 
are passed away; behold, -all things are become new.”—Pawi to the Cor. 
inthians. 


T is probably expedient to throw the discussion of the 
| nature of regeneration into two sections, not to weary by 
too great a protraction of a single exposition. We resume at 
the point under treatment at the close of the last chapter, 
and proceed to vindicate the position taken from some possi- 
ble exceptions toit. That position was, that the facts of con- 
sciousness in Christian experience plainly disclosed the re- 
lief of the struggling soul in some external agency. It may 
be excepted to this testimony of the facts of the Christian 
consciousness, that perhaps this realization of helplessness 
was a mistake, that the man possessed more power than he 
supposed, that he failed at first to relieve himself because 
his powers were not in a propitious condition for exertion, 
and that, as In many other cases, a renewed effort, under 
more favorable conditions, secured success, and consequently 
that a new exertion of his own abilities, at a happier moment, 
was the real cause of the change in his consciousness. It is 
obvious that this exception proceeds on the supposition that 
the consciousness of helplessness was a mistake. But if it 
is true in point of fact, the relief finally experienced points 
directly to some independent agency. Proof of the reality 
of this spiritual disability, then, will establish the argument 
and the conclusion. Now, there are two lines of evidence 
which prove the reality of this disablement. The Scriptures 
are plain and positive in the assertion of it as one of the in- 


variable effects of transgression. “Dead in sin” is one mode 
174 


Tue NATURE oF REGENERATION. Hey 


of assertion in reference to it, and death excludes the notion 
of life and energy. ‘“ Without me, ye can do nothing” Says 
Christ in another mode of assertion, conclusive on the sub- 
ject. No stream can of itself ascend higher than its source; 
no nature can transcend itself in the manifestation of its 
energies, and if man is really dead in trespasses and sins, he 
can put forth no energy containing in it the element of real 
holiness, or true spiritual life. But the testimony of con- 
sciousness is also resistless on the point, and cannot be over- 
borne by any imputation of delusion. Since Christian ex- 
perience is nothing but the answer of our consciousness to 
the teaching of the Scriptures, any true discovery of his own 
spiritual state will lead to the discovery and distinct con- 
sciousness of this helplessness in the soul. In every truly 
awakened sinner this consciousness does become clear; he 
feels, as the result of many an abortive effort, that he is un- 
able to extricate himself from the difficulties which surround 
him, and is really lost if help cannot be gained. The inabil- 
ity is true in itself; it is asserted in the sacred record; it is 
distinctly recognized in the consciousness. Its reality cannot 
be denied. When, therefore, the relief comes, this inability 
to achieve it points NT to some independent agency for 
its origin. 

But even if it should be admitted that this conscious sense 
of spiritual weakness was a delusion or a mistake, this will 
not bar the inference of the independent origin of the expe- 
rienced relief. It is certain that the sinner never experiences 
this relief until he ceases to exert himself, and relies upon 
the assistance of another; and it comes to the same thing to 
have no power, or not to exert it. This is the invariable 
law of those peculiar operations of the mind which we call 
religious experience ; they only manifest themselves through 
a trust in Christ. Now, if we admit that this consciousness 
of utter helplessness is a delusion, if yet the relief never 
comes until the person ceases to exert himself and trusts in 


176 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


another power altogether, the conclusion will still be irresis- 
tible, that this relief comes from some independent agency ; 
because it amounts to the same thing in the production of an 
effect, to say that the alleged cause had no power to produce 
it, or that it did not exert what power it had. In this case 
both warranties of the inference are true; the sinner is both 
unable to effect the result, and ceases to attempt it. He 
relies upon another to do it; and the actual gain of the relief 
points to an independent origin of it, under a warrant under 
either of these compulsions to the inference, sufficient under 
one and resistless under both. 

It may also be objected, that this asserted relief may be 
only the quiet and repose of the soul following a period of 
exertion, aS a necessary consequence of the cessation of its 
efforts. This, however, is fully refuted by the fact demon- 
strated by too many instances to admit of any question, that 
the consequences flowing from that conscious relief of felt 
difficulties in the soul are not merely negative, but positive ; 
they are something more than a mere change from agitation 
to repose. They affect character; they take bold on the 
deepest and most effective impelling forces in the inner man. 
The immediate effects on the consciousness are often very 
striking ; they are sometimes gradual, almost imperceptible 
in their growth. The immediate emotions excited are very 
animated in some cases; they are very quiet in others. In 
some instances the notion of faith, which was wrapped in 
impenetrable mystery, becomes so clear in its utter sim- 
plicity that the mind is amazed that it was unable to catch a 
conception so plain and easy. In other instances the growth — 
of this intuition of faith is slow and progressive, just as the 
Scriptures describe it in the figure of the early dawn with its 
indefinite shades, growing more and more unto the perfect 
day. But independent of these immediate effects on the 
consciousness, varying in degree and proportion in every 
case, the relief that 1s experienced is not merely a change in 


THe NATURE oF REGENERATION. LG 


the immediate consciousness, but develops profound and 
permanent modifications of character, disposition, feeling, 
affections, views, principles, and outward conduct. It pro- 
duces effects at once too broad, too powerful, and too per- 
manent to result from a mere cessation of mental struggle. 
The result is not merely repose of mind, but profound and 
far-reaching modifications of character. The inference is 
irresistible from the facts, not only that the change is real 
and very profound in its force, but also that it originates in 
an independent agency. That agency is defined for us in 
the Bible as the Spirit of God. The effect is ascribed to an 
origin not only supernatural, but divine. The facts of con- 
sciousness clearly reveal an independent origin without the 
soul, and distinct from its own energies, but can give no 
account of the nature of the power whose benefits it experi- 
ences as divine, or distinguished from divine. The Scrip- 
tures alone settle that; but the facts of consciousness warrant 
the acceptance of its testimony; perhaps, more deeply inves- 
tigated, may confirm the description of the power as divine. 
Not only does the word of God assert this power to be 
_ divine, but it is singularly emphatic in the assertion that 
the regeneration of the human heart is the result of a very 
peculiar manifestation of divine power. It strains the 
energies of one of the richest and most powerful of human 
languages to carry the assertion that it is by the exceeding 
greatness of his power that men believe. It is reckoned to be 
an exercise of divine power fully equal to that by which he 
raised Christ from the dead.* No outward sign of it is 
given; all proceeds in the silence of the soul. All its laws 
are respected; none of its faculties are jostled out of place. 
The power exerted is supreme omnipotence. All exercises 
of infinite power are, by the very perfection of the energy 
employed, free from the signs and throes of exertion. The 
movement is noiseless; there is no convulsion or open dis- 
12 


178 GIFTS To UNBELIEVERS. 


turbance; the effect is displayed without any other sign of 
the energy employed than the effect itself. The regenera- 
tion of a human soul, though it involves possibly one of the 
highest exertions of infinite power, occurs without any violent 
shock or disturbance of human consciousness. The effect is 
plainly registered in the consciousness, and developed in its 
profound influences on the character and life, on the thoughts 
and feelings; but no sign of the energy employed, different 
either from the ordinary workings of human thought and 
feeling, or the regular. characteristics of the working of in- 
finite power, is displayed. It is only inferior power, strug- 
ling with difficulties which tax its energies to the uttermost, 
which yields the signs of its exertion in violent throes and — 
convulsions of effort. Occasionally reports are made of ex- 
traordinary convulsive movements on the consciousness, 
producing similar disturbances in the body, in connection 
with the work of grace. But wherever this occurs it 1s not 
due to the power of the Holy Ghost, which works with swift 
and silent energy, and always in accord with the written law, 
let all things be done decently and in order. These strong 
displays of mental disturbance are due to the infirmities of 
human nature itself; they may exist in connection with the 
smooth, swift energy with which the competent power of the 
Holy Ghost does its regenerating work; but they are not 
due to it. 

The fourth point which we made in the enumerated list of 
the peculiar characteristics of regeneration was, that 1t was | 
not a fundamental change in the faculties of the soul them- 
selves, but in some of the capabilities of those faculties, such 
capabilities as are effected by the pervading moral element of 
human nature. This discrimination is made in order to meet 
an objection to the Scripture doctrine, as involving a positive 
alteration of the physical constitution of the soul itself. We 
have already met one part of this objection in attributing the 
change to the physical power of God, by showing that we 


THE NATURE oF REGENERATION. 179 


cannot discern the nature of the divine power in any of 
its workings, and that whether the power employed in origi- 
nally creating man holy was designated physical power or 
not, the same power might be employed in a new creation of 
a depraved nature unto holiness, without giving any leciti- 
mate ground for complaint. We shall now attempt to show 
that the change itself as wrought by this power is nota change 
in the natural constitution of any human faculty, but only in 
the moral complexion of that constitution, superinduced by 
sin, and ingrained into tho moral energies of the soul. As 
we have repeatedly stated, the moral element of the soul, 


_ seated in the will or heart, which is the subject of regenerat- 


ing grace, pervades the whole mental structure in a manner 
analogous to that in which a color pervades the transpar- 
ency of glass or a fluid. It consequently modifies everything 
seen through it. A man looking at a landscape through a 
crimson glass will see every object in it, every house, tree, 
hill, and meadow, just as if they were seen through a clear, 
uncolored glass, only with this plain difference: in one case, 
the objects will be seen in their own natural colors; in the 


a other, they will be seen covered with crimson hues, yielded. 


by the medium through which they are observed. In a sim- 
ilar way the moral elements in the soul, considered as pure 
or depraved, will control the view of the very same truths 
when brought under inspection. It is too well known to be 
disputed, that the affections of the will, the passions, atfec- 
tions, and prejudices, which are all the direct expressions of 
the will or heart in man, do control the views of the under- 


_ standing, and create the responsibility which is universally 


attached to all the effects of prejudice and passion. To ex- 
tract and remove the influence of such feelings will inevit- 
ably modify the judgments of the understanding and the feel- 
Ings growing out of them. 

We may now understand what was meant by the expres- 
sion, that regeneration effected a change, not in faculties, but 


180 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


in certain capabilities of faculty. The removal of a preju- 
dice disabling correct views in the understanding is not the 
creation of that understanding, but the mere restoration of a 
capability of a correct view which had been destroyed by 
the modifying prejudice. We are also enabled to conceive 
a little more clearly what is meant by spiritual blindness. It 
is not a destruction of the intellect, but the destruction of a 
certain capability in the intellect produced by sin, by the 
coloring influence of moral depravity. Just as we see the 
objects in a landscape. under the colors yielded by the col- 
ored medium through which we look, and do not see the 
natural and real colors of those objects, we are as truly band 
to those colors as if we did not see them at all. The leaves 
on a tree in summer are green, but seen through a crimson 
glass they appear red, and we are as incapable of seeing the 
real colors, we are as truly blind to them, as if we did not see 
them at all. We see, but do not perceive. Just so the mind, 
blinded by sin, can in one sense see the truths of the gospel, 
and yet, in another, be utterly ddind to their true significance. 
This is the explanation of the gospel paradox, “seeing they 
shall see and not perceive.” The illustration and the fact 
illustrated show the worthlessness of the cavil, that there is 
a hopeless paradox, if not a positive contradiction, in the gos- 
pel, when it speaks of an understanding perceptive and yet 
insensible. There are other facts which show the same thing. 
It is proved under the analogous case of color blindness, or 
the want of musical perception, or the want of the artistic 
sense of the beautiful in art or nature, that there is such a 
thing as a mind perceptive and yet blind. Color blindness is 
a singular incompetence to discern colors, which is sometimes 
found in particular individuals. It is not want of eyesight; 
these persons can see, but they are not able to see colors, or 
to distinguish one from another. Some individuals of the 
class can see some difference between a thing colored and a 
thing uncolored, but they are utterly blind to the actual hues 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. 181 


and to the distinctions between them. Here is an instance 
of a mind perceptive and yet blind. We frequently hear 
that one has no ear for music. There are two senses in 
which this is true, but in neither does it mean that the per- 
son is deaf. But in one of the senses it means that the per- 
son has no capacity to make music himself, although he may 
hear and enjoy it. In the other of the two senses it means 
that the person has no capacity to perceive the melody and 
charm of music; music is often positively disagreeable to 
him. In this case we have a striking instance of a mind see- 
ing and yet blind, perceptive yet insensible. Such a person 
is not deaf; every note in a strain of music comes clearly to 
the ear; but he has no perception of the melody and charm 
in it. -A man totally wanting in the artistic sense of the 
beautiful in nature and in art may stand before a glorious 
landscape or a beautiful painting; he may see every object in 
the one, and every form, color, and combination in the other, 
and yet be totally blind to the beauty in both. In view of 
these facts, why should any one question the fact that the 
mind may be intellectually perceptive of religious truth, and 
_ yet spiritually blind to its real significance. 

In the spiritual blindness which the word of God attributes 
to the fallen human soul the same general characteristics 
prevail. The understanding is able to see the truth con- 
cerning God, the law, and the gospel, by an intellectual 
operation, just as it sees other truths; but inasmuch as the 
field of vision in the intellect is transfused with the influence 
of a depraved moral nature, it fails to see the true signifi- 
cance—the real color of these truths. Hence the character 
of God is misjudged, his law is misapprehended; the excel- 
lence of both is discounted ; his grace is misconstrued; and 
all his glorious claims to affection present an aspect of 
offence instead of attraction. 

When, then, we take in the full meaning of the fact that 
this miseuiding element in the mental vision is mora/—that 


182 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


it is seated in the will, and all its miseuiding power is an ex- 
pression of the will—that this moral element is morally bad, 
not only as it is the result of sin, and as such involves 
responsibility, but as it is in itself a bad or depraved moral 
energy, necessarily determining both responsibility and con- 
demnation, we can understand why the Scriptures hold 
men accountable, not merely in spite of their spiritual blind- 
ness, but on account of it. The incapacity to see the truth 
is directly due to the badness, the moral evil, which is in the 
moral nature of the man. To the color in the glass is due 
the blindness to the real nature of the objects seen. The 
responsibility for spiritual blindness is absolutely demon- 
strated when we remember that the seat of the incapacity is 
in the will itself—in the permanent states and disposition of 
the very faculty which chiefly conditions responsibility. 
Regeneration acting directly on this depraved moral ele- 
ment in the heart, changing it from the morally bad to the 
morally good, altering the crimson color which regulates all 
the activities of the mental structure, will necessarily affect 
the views of the understanding. But it is not a change of 
faculty; it is only a change in the capability of a faculty. 
The color does not confer the transparency on the glass 
through which objects are seen; it only modifies it. The 
grace of regeneration does not create an understanding; it 
only purges an existing power of perception into a capacity 
to see aright. This view of the function of grace in regen- 
eration also corrects a fanatical misapprehension of it, as 
involving the revelation of new facts to the mind. The blind- 
ness itis designed to remove is not an ignorance of facts, 
but merely an insensibility to the true significance of facts 
already known. We are sure, therefore, that all who claim 
to have a new revelation from God, and appeal to the illumi- 
nating office of the Holy Ghost in proof of the assertion, are 
altogether mistaken, simply because the revelation of new 
truth is not the object of that illumination. The effect of 


Poe bg 


Tor NATURE OF REGENERATION. 183 


regeneration on the understanding is to enable it to see 
moral and religious truth, with more or less completeness, in 
its true colors. The character of God, instead of appearing 
offensive, begins to reveal its intrinsic beauty. The law of God, 
instead of appearing harsh, overstrained, an object of dis- 
sust and terror, begins to appear as the venerable bond of 
all justice, wisdom, and goodness. The nature of sin is -e- 
vealed as only evil, and worthy of universal condemnation 
and resistance. The nature of holiness is revealed as worthy 
of all reverence and love, and conformity to its dictates, the 
eternal obligation of all wisdom and righteousness. The 
erace and glory of the gospel begin to reveal their real 
aspects. This is what is meant by opening the eyes of the 
understanding to see wonders in the law of the Lord. 

In the fifth and last place, the change involved in regen- 
eration does not stop with its effects on the perceptive 
powers of the understanding ; it is wniversal in its influence. 
Such is the positive assertion of the apostle: old things are 
passed away; behold, all things are become new. It affects 
the heart as well as the understanding. The man still loves 
and hates; but the things he once loved now lose their at- 
traction, and the things he once hated put on an attraction 
they never had before. The heart has been changed; its 
moral tastes have been altered. Sin, instead of being an 
object of delight, now excites disgust, anxiety, and distress. 
The idea of God and Christ, instead of exciting fear and dis- 
like, now becomes welcome to the thoughts, the objects of 
an affectionate consideration, more or less powerful in de- 
gree. The law of God is approved as wise, just, and good. 
The soul discovers a pleasure in prayer, and delights in its 
exercise. The Bible becomes precious, and there is a sensi- 
ble satisfaction in reading it, and in meditation on the high 
things of religion and the future life. As the aversion of the 
heart once banished such reflections, the change of the heart 
invites them. The whole moral tone of the soul is purified 


184 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


and elevated. It can no longer find the delight it once did in 
books, companionships, and pleasures in which sinful ele- 
ments constituted the controlling complexion. There is an 
elevation and refinement of the whole moral energy of the 
soul in true regeneration. The heart is brought into sympa- 
thy with good men and good things. The spirit and temper 
of the whole heart is purified and refined to a degree meas- 
ured accurately by the degree of the grace given and the 
definiteness with which the work of regeneration is accom- 
plished and revealed in the consciousness. It creates new 
fears and new hopes, new desires and new aversions. The 
old dread of religious ideas, and of sensibility to the meaning 
of them, gives way to the dread of a want of them. The 
influence of the Holy Ghost, once resisted, is now invited 
and cherished. The hope of being left to sin in peace is 
now exchanged for the fear of being left to sin in peace. 
The society of Christians, once dreaded, is now welcomed, 
and that, too, in proportion to the vigor of their spiritual 
character as affording both pleasure and help to one’s own reli- 
gious life by the association. Temptations are no longer sought 
for or welcomed, but are dreaded and shunned; restraint 
from wrong-doing is eagerly desired instead of being resisted. 

The grace of regeneration affects all the energies of the 
man. It will regulate the whole series of the distinct ener- 
gies of the will, from mere impulse to positive volitions, the 
determined purposes which have passed from desire and 
stable affections to settled resolves. It draws the authority 
of the divine law over all these manifestations of will, and 
gives effect to that authority. It controls the positive voli- 
tions as they pass on further and go over into actions, the 
last and highest expression of the moral energy. It regu- 
lates the use of language, and teaches a man to refine his 
vocabulary, and clear it of all impure or unholy words in 
epithet or argument. It affects his whole conduct, making him 
regardful of the rights and interests of others. It establishes 


THe NATURE OF REGENERATION. 185 


the supreme obligation of justice, candor, integrity, and 
kindness over all his positive acts. It controls his habits as 
well as his feelings; his passions as well as his acts. It per- 
vades every relation he sustains; it makes him a better hus- 
band and father, a better child or servant, a better citizen and 
friend. It makes him more vigilant and careful to be what 
he ought to be in every relation and office of human hfe. It 
controls a man’s whole view of this earthly scene of existence, 
gives evidence to the unseen things of the life to come, and 
substance to the things of hope in the revelations of the 
Scriptures. It gives him practical estimates of the relative 
value of the things that are seen and the things that are un- 
seen, which exert a powerful control over his endeavor to 
secure them. 

The grace of regeneration exerts a profound influence on 
the human memory, keeping it awake to the truths which 
concern the higher interests of the soul. The memory has 
become seriously affected in its hold upon moral and re- 

ligious ideas. Under the undisturbed influence of the de- 
“pravity of the heart, the faculty has become singularly 
treacherous to the impression of these truths. This impres- 
sion is hard to make, and easy to erase. This is due to the 
secret reluctance of the will to entertain these ideas, and the 
secret repulsion thus given to their presence in the mind. 
The impression is described by a prophet to be as evanes- 
cent as the morning cloud or the early dew. The influence 
of even a thorough religious training is frequently very faint 
to all appearances. The memory of God, sin, death, and 
responsibility, unsupported by the grace of the Holy Spirit, 
will be unwelcome, swift in passing out of the mind, resisted 
and soon obliterated altogether. There is nothing more im- 
portant fora sinner, if he only knew it, than intense and 
constant prayer that God would keep alive the recollection 
of his spiritual relations in the deadly atmosphere of an un- 
holy moral nature. Regeneration corrects this fatal tendency 


186 GiIFts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


in memory to let go its hold on these all-important thoughts. 
These ideas become welcome ; they are no longer repelled, 
but cherished; they return easily; they remain more con- 
stantly. God, instead of “not being in all their thoughts,” is 
now in daily remembrance, and in many cases is literally in 
all their thoughts. The mind learns to cleave to these 
spiritual ideas as the very strength and solace of life. The 
deadly paralysis of memory on its spiritual side is overcome 
by the grace of regeneration. 

It also profoundly affects that wonderful faculty called 
conscience. It purifies and intensifies its intuitions of right and 
wrong. It becomes more delicate and refined in its percep- 
tions. This is the reason why Christians often see impro- 
prieties in things in which the less delicate intuitions of a 
merely cultivated conscience can see none. It also gives 
more authority to conscience, making its requirements more 
effective. It sets up conscience, guided by the word of God, 
the master principle of action, as distinguished from expedi- 
ency, especially in cases where there is no bond of civil law 
or effective public opinion which can be brought to bear to 
secure right action. This master principle, the vice-royalty 
of God in the soul, is endued by regenerating grace with a 
higher fitness for its great functions, and established in a 
wider and stronger, as well as a more constant, exercise of its 
peculiar dominion. 

Regeneration also affects the play of the fancy and the ener- 
gies of the cmaginative faculty. It trains the imagination by 
constant reference to the unseen realities of the future state, 
and leads it to higher conceptions, and thus imparts a more 
_ vivid force to the apprehension of the grand truths revealed 
to faith. It tends to quell those licentious combinations of 
images which are so pleasing to an unholy heart, and which 
throng on the unregenerate fancy without any suspicion of 
their degrading and ruinous effects on the purity and dignity 
of the character. It restrains the less odious, yet dangerous, 


Tor NATURE OF REGENERATION. 187 


indulgence of unchastened desires and hopes, the useless 
dreams of impossible self-exaltation. It brings every imagi- 
nation of the thoughts of the heart under the obedience of 
Christ. It sets a force to watch and resist the entry and en- 
tertainment of all polluting visions and all misguiding fancies, 
and will finally quench them altogether. 

‘It affects also the sense of wit and humor. These charming 
faculties have felt deeply the influence of the depravity in 
the moral nature. They have been led to the discernment of 
the witty and humorous relations, peculiar to their own na- 
ture, in things foul and wicked, and have thus been betrayed 
into becoming ministers of iniquitous influence, often to such 
an extent asto make some good men more sensitive to wrong 
than competent in judgment, suspicious of the lawfulness of 
these faculties themselves. It is certain that these faculties 
in a low type of moral character often obliterate their own 
uses, and destroy their own charm, by the coarseness to which 
they are determined by the low type of the ruling moral ele- 
ment which breeds it. It is also certain they are often used 
to destroy reverence for sacred things, and to discredit the 
truth and service of God. The purgation of that corrupt 
element which distorts them would not destroy these fascinat- 
ing faculties, but would emancipate them to a legitimate use, 
bring them under the influence of holiness, and make them 
the ministers of its ends. They assuredly have a legitimate 
use; they are parts of the human understanding as God has 
made it, and to discount them as essentially wrong would be 
to charge him foolishly. Indeed, the question has been 
raised, whether there will be any place in heaven for the use 
of these brilliant powers of the soul. Without pretending 
to dogmatize on the subject, we, at least, have no hesitation 
in expressing the opinion that there will be. These facul- 
ties belong to the actual constitution of the soul, as much as 
reason or memory. The Scriptures nowhere intimate that 
any essential faculty of the mind will be obliterated by the 


188 Gifts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


full redemption of heaven. The redeemed man will be a man. 


still, unshorn of any essential power of his intellectual na- 


ture; and if these faculties of wit and humor should remain, 


we can conceive no reason why the faculties should be re- 


tained, and their employment should be forbidden. It adds. 


a new zest to the conception of the higher and more sacred 
employments of that region of serene and holy peace, to con- 
celve its intervals of relaxation enlivened by the joyous mer- 
riment of its holy and happy inhabitants rejoicing in each 


other’s society. There are no tears in heaven; it is nowhere: 


said there is no laughter. 
It would be interesting and perhaps profitable to trace the 


infiuence of moral depravity, and the counter-influence of 


divine grace, on those more recondite parts of the soul 


which are not usually considered in discussions of this ereat. 


doctrine. The study of the human spirit, both on its intel- 


lectual and ethical side, must be more or less complete as. 


the states of the mind and heart, as affected by sin and by 


regenerating grace, are more or less perfectly apprehended. 


But we must pass this inquiry by. 


We may now form some conception of that great change 
which must be wrought in us before we can see either that. 


kingdom of God which is within the soul, or that kingdom 


where God unseals his full glory to the view of his rejoicing 
creatures. It is a profound and radical change in the whole: 
existing moral nature of the man. It makes him a new 


creature in Christ; it renews his nature; it re-colors his 
character; it transforms his will; it re-moulds his whole 
system of thinking, feeling, and acting. It gives him new 


objects to live for; new rules to live by; new principles to: 


impel to action; and new sensibilities to success or failure in 
the progress and development of that new life. Regenera- 


tion works through that faith which gives evidence to things. 
_ unseen, and substance to things of hope. It thus gives re- 
ality to all the grand doctrines and facts of the gospel reve- 


Tor NATURE OF REGENERATION. 189 


Jation. It gives substance to heaven and hell, to God and 
angels, to the perils of the pilgrimage through this world, 
and to the grand guarantees of safety to the child of God in 
the covenant of his grace. It will tear open the crystal 
vault of the sky, with its studded stars, and display to the 
eye of faith, above and beyond the visible creation, a crystal 
city, more glorious than the most splendid creation of Grecian 
genius, overspread by a serener sky and more glorious stars, 
crowded and piled high with the gemmed walls and columns 
of the palaces and temples of the kings and priests unto 
God. Yea, this mighty change will draw down over this 
visible creation all the realities of eternity; they will settle 
down upon it, pervading, but not disturbing it, as a cloud 
comes down with its light veil upon a mountain. It will 
develop a grand existence even in this world for any soul 
which is bold enough to develop the full force of that faith 
which gives evidence and force to invisible things. We are 
all walking in a state closely allied to somnambulism under 
the grand things of this life and of the life to come, under 
the effects of sin and revealed grace, under the realities of an 
immortal state. But we are moving as a man walks under 
the columns and arches of some mighty temple with a veil 
upon his face or a dimness in his eyes. Regeneration will 
break that deadly stupor. Faith, as the organ of the new 
regenerate nature, tears off the veil and lets in the grandeur 
and glory of the surrounding and the overhanging truth. 
Faith seldom leads to its more pronounced and _ positive 
effects, simply because it is so feebly developed. But to 
every bold, meek seeker after attainable grace, the warrant 
of great boldness in the faith is given; and to every such an 
one regeneration and the living faith, which is the fruit of the 
Spirit, will open fountains, not only of holy joy and energy, 
but visions of glory, even in this life, more beautiful than the 
curly clouds which swing in amber and gold on the western 
arch at evening. It is possible for a regenerate soul, even 


190 GIFTs TO UNBELIEVERS. 


here on the dusty and hot highway of the pilgrimage, even 
here in the very heat and grapple of heady conflict, to rejoice in 
the Lord—yes, to rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and 
full of glory. Thanks be unto the Father for the grace of 
the Spirit, not less than for the gift of the Son. 


CePA D Eerie ae 1X 
THE EVIDENCES OF REGHNERATION. 


‘‘Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath 
given us of his Spirit.”—John in his Epistles. 


HE discussion of regeneration will be made sufficiently 
complete for the purposes of this little treatise by an 
exposition of its evidences. The reality of the change can- 
not be disputed, either as a doctrine of the Scriptures or as a 
matter of experience. But the reality and soundness of any 
particular instance of professed conversion is an issue which 
is to be proved, and hence the importance of a clear under- 
standing of the scriptural evidences which prove it. The 
necessity of this proof arises from the fact that the nature of 
the change is a question of inference and not of conscious- 
ness. The fact of a change of some sort is a matter of con- 
sciousness, but the real nature of that conscious change is 
necessarily a question of inference by a comparison of the 
marks of a genuine conversion as laid down in the word of 
God, and the facts as reported by self-examination into the 
conscious experiences of the soul. It is a favorite doctrine 
with some, that as the testimony of consciousness is direct, 
it must. be clear and correct; that consequently a man always 
knows when he is converted; that any doubt is only a form 
of unbelief; and that every true Christian is necessarily in a 
state of assurance. Hence the boldest and most confident 
language is used; all modesty and caution in the estimate of 
one’s spiritual standing is discounted, all necessity for the 
warning, *‘ be not high-minded, but fear,” for self-distrust, and 
self-examination to see if we be in the faith, is set aside ; and 
the absolute assurance that we have passed from death unto 


191 


192 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


life is accepted on the bare consciousness of a change in the 
feelings—a consciousness assuredly reliable as to a change 
of some sort, but by no means giving assurance that the 
change is regeneration. The mind may undergo many 
changes on the subject of religion, each one of which may 
be reliably certified by consciousness; but whether the con- 
scious and certified change is the saving change of the heart, 
the real nature of the change is still to be ascertained; and 
this is to be done by comparing the altered mental phe- 
nomena with the Scripture marks of conversion, and the con- 
clusion inferred from their agreement. 

It is a question of znference, not of mere consciousness ; an 
inference to be cautiously and deliberately drawn, and not 
hurried to a conclusion. As the facts in the consciousness 
which constitute one premise from which the conclusion is 
drawn, are, in many cases, not so strongly and definitely de- 
veloped as to warrant an instant judgment of their real na- 
ture, the need for caution is obvious. The facts may and do 
reveal themselves with varying degrees of distinctness; and 
while, in some cases, a quick and confident decision upon 
them may be warranted, yet, in many others, a wide scale of 
modest judgments is not only warranted, but demanded. 
The stony-ground hearers in the parable teach us that 
there is such a thing as receiving the word with joy, yet 
soon giving way to a withered condition of experience and 
hope. They bring the blade, but no grain; leaves, but no 
fruit; and by their fruits they are known. Satan has made 
a counterfeit of every coin in the currency of the kingdom. 
There is a false faith and a false joy. That deceitfulness of 
the heart, which is pronounced more deceitful than anything 
else, gives space for a vast series of spurious religious affec- 
tions. There is often, especially in high and wide-spread 
scenes of religious excitement, an honest, but mistaken, con- 
viction in many minds that they do comply with the terms 
of salvation; this breeds the equally honest, but equally 


S 


THE EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 193 


mistaken, conviction that they have passed from death unto 
life; this, again, persuades them that they are saved; and 
this, again, produces a feeling of joy and sympathy with 
holy men and things. But it soon passes away, and the con- 
viction of being deceived takes permanent possession of the 
mind. All this possibility of deception, the existence of false 
affections, the deceitfulness of sin, the art and cunning of the 
adversary, lift a warning finger, and emphasize the command 
of Paul, “Examine yourselves,” “Prove your own selves.” 

In making the test, one premise of the inference is always 
clear, that is, the scriptural signs and evidences of conver- 
sion; but the other premise, the facts in the consciousness, 
are often far from clear. In all these cases the conclusion 
cannot be rationally and scripturally drawn with clearness 
and decision. Upon this state of facts rest the apostolic in- 
junctions to cautious self-inspection. In those cases where 
the personal experiences of grace are exceptionally definite 
and distinct, a more decisive and rapid inference is alto- 
gether warrantable; but it is very certain that, even in these 
- eases, in the long conflict of the spiritual warfare which is 
before them if life is prolonged, these more fortunate chil- 
dren of grace will find a plentiful occasion for the wise cau- 
tion of the sacred writers. The test of regeneration is found 
in the conformity of the facts in consciousness with the marks 
which discriminate the saving work of the Spirit, and not 
merely or only in the consciousness of a change of some 
kind. It is all-important, then, to ascertain these discrim1- 
nating marks as they are delineated in the word of God. 

1. One testimony in reference to these tests tells us, “here- 
by know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he 
hath given us of his Spirit”; and eA, , 
us of his Spirit by one infallible test, “ the. oie ee fie Spirit? a 
in us. These fruits of the Spirit are clearly defined for us ; 
they are “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, Abii 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance.” The presence of these 

13 


194 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


affections and qualities in the mind is proof of the saving 
energy of the Holy Ghost in regenerating the human goul; 
the absence of them proves the want of it. The feeble and 
doubtful development of these graces, throwing the existence 
of them into question, makes the saving grant of the Spirit 
in regeneration a matter of doubt. The prevalence of these 
qualities, clear and unquestionable in the consciousness, 
leaves the question of regeneration settled beyond a doubt. 
The presence of the opposite qualities, “hatred, misery, rest- 
lessness, impatience under trial and provocation, badness, 
roughness, unbelief, pride, and perpetual self-assertion, and 
the want of restraint upon unholy and selfish impulses and 
passions,” indicates the want of the Spirit in his saving power. 
A steady resistance of these evil qualities, a sincere aversion 
to their presence, a persistent grief for their intrusion, while - 
a proof that they do exist in the heart, is also a proof that 
the Holy Ghost is there also, animating and sustaining an 
irreconcilable conflict with them, which will surely issue in 
full victory over them in the end. Let us follow the series 
of the fruits of the Spirit in the order in which they are de- 
seribed. 

4. The series begins with love. It has been explained at 
length how the ruling moral element in the human spirit, like 
the crimson or golden coloring in glass or a transparent 
fiuid, regulates or modifies every power of the understanding 
and every feeling of the heart, to a greater or less degree. 
When this moral energy is holy, it determines every power 
which it influences in holiness; when depraved, it determines 
them 7 sin, or in the effects of sin. When we segregate in 
thought, and consider the influence exerted on the heart, we 
see a powerful control exerted over all the affections. When 
the modifying element is depraved, we see its manifestations 
in depraved affections. The carnal mind is seen to be at en- 
mity against God; his character is disliked; his law is dis- 
tasteful; his claims are resisted; his service is discounted as 


THe EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 195 


unpleasant; all his asserted relations to man are regarded. with 
invincible aversion. But when the pervading moral energy 
which conditions these dreadful results is purified by regenerat- 
ing grace, a change, corresponding in the energy of its manifes- 
tations to the degree of the purifying grace given, at once ap- 
pears in the affections towards God, and towards all the reve- 
lations and expressions of his will, character, and supremacy 
in the universe. Leading up to the manifestation of the change 
in the heart is a preliminary and corresponding change in the 
views of the understanding. Asthe depraved moral element, 
whose seat is in the will or heart itself, determines warped and 
distorted views of God, and all his manifested will, so the puri- 
fication of this modifying force determines a change in the 
views of the understanding, giving it just views of God and his 
manifested will. The regeneration of the heart secures this 
change in the views of the mind, and this change in the mind 
leads directly to the manifestations of change in the heart 
itself. The revolution begins in the seat of the mischief, and 
thence transmits its altering force over the whole circle of the 
energies subject to its influence. Without dwelling on the 
relation between the heart and the understanding in this mu- 
tual interaction in regeneration, let us trace out the practical 
modifications in the governing love of the soul as delineated 
in the Scriptures. 

The first change we notice is towards Christ as the Saviour 
of sinners. “To you which believe he is precious.” “ We are 
the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and 
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” 
To every natural mind, capable of understanding and appre- 
ciating the unique and unparalleled personal character of 
Jesus of Nazareth, there appears such an assemblage of per- 
sonal excellences as to extort the tribute of unbounded ad- 
miration, even from infidels and errorists of every class. 
This species of natural good feeling towards him is the 
travesty of genuine love to him, the counterfeit of the saving 


196 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


affection of love to him; and in those who rely upon the 
mere culture of the religious nature may be easily mistaken 
for it. But when he is presented and pressed upon the con- 
science in his grand comprehensive character and function 
as the Saviour of sinners, these lovers turn away in aversion, 
and no trace of love to him is discoverable. The implication 
of their own character, as senners—the very terms of his de- 
liverance—/free grace, deepening and adding intensity to the 
implied charge of guilt and helplessness, is more than they 
can stand. Consequently all men at first, and always, unless 
moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit, turn away from 
Christ as a sinner’s free and gracious Saviour with fixed 
aversion. Yet this office of Christ is the chief glory of his 
character, personal and official; it is the very object of his 
advent on earth; it is the very thing which constitutes his 
priceless value to the human race, and this is the very thing 
which discriminates the love to him which is the fruit of the 
Spirit in regeneration, and distinguishes it from all the 
merely natural affection towards him, bred in the natural 
mind by the unique perfection of his personal character. 
The freedom of his grace is the very crown and summit of 
his value to a race of lost and helpless sinners. It is this 
office and this grace which adjusts him to the miseries, the 
sins, the fears, and the yearning hopes of the human soul. 
It is this which adjusts him to the felt wants of every indi- 
vidual who becomes acquainted with his own spiritual con- 
dition. It is the discovery of him in this character as a 
sinners Saviour which awakens the love of such a soul. 
Just as soon as grace triumphs in regeneration, ¢hzs insight 
into Christ comes to the front, and that very notion of him 
as a Saviour of sinners, saving them by free grace, which was 
once the chief occasion of offence in him, becomes the chief 
cause of all the joy and peace of the regenerated and saved 
sinner. There is no more striking and reliable proof of re- 
generation than this change of feeling and affection towards 


THE EVIDENCES oF REGENERATION. 197 


Christ as a sinner’s Saviour. Hence the test as laid down 
by the apostle: “To you which believe he is precious.” That 
love to Christ as the friend and deliverer of sinners is de- 
monstration of regenerating grace. 

This dove implanted by the Spirit manifests itself suitably 
on occasion towards every revelation of the nature and wil 
of God. It is love towards the Father as well as to the 
Son ; it brings to view that glorious fatherhood restored to his 
reconciled rebel by the grace of redemption. It is love to the 
Holy Spirit, the sweet, benignant dweller in the unholy heart, 
to develop the regenerate life he has given, and unfold all 
the comfort and glory of the covenant of grace and the things 
of Christ. As that enmity to God which marked and distin- 
suished the carnal mind showed itself in the judgments and 
feelings excited by every display of his will, whether in his 
word, law, ordinances, and the events of his providence, the 
change of this enmity into genuine love towards himself will 
exert a corresponding change in the views and feelings /o- 
wards his will, however disclosed. 

The second manifestation in the altered love of the heart, 
which we note, is the affection which springs up towards the 
followers of Christ. “We know that we have passed from 
death unto life, because we love the brethren.” One of the 
most remarkable traits of the true Christian nature is the 
sympathy created for all men indiscriminately as lost souls, 
and the peculiar sympathy and affection for all who love and 
trust the Saviour. One of the earliest impulses of the re- 
newed soul is to bring others to share in forgiving mercy. The 
same principle in which this feeling is rooted determines a 
strong sympathy for all who do share in it. The desire that 
the gracious giver of hopes so sweet should be suitably loved 
and honored is delighted when it finds those who do so love 
and honor him. Often in some darkened mood, when his own 
love to his Saviour appears to his own jealous heart to be 
doubtful, there is a sensible satisfaction in the thought that 


198 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


others do love and do him justice. This sympathy leads to 
delight in the society of Christians, to the desire to talk with 
them, to open the heart to them, to learn of their experiences, 
to a sense of joy and safety in such communion with them. 
As the carnal mind found no pleasure in the society of be- 
levers as such, the regenerate mind does find a real delight 
in the communion of saints. 

Another expression of this altered love of the soul is 
towards the law of God. “Oh, how love I thy law; it is my 
meditation all the day.” The law of God may be consid- 
ered under the specific notion of the moral law, or under 
the notion of his positive and statutory legislation, or under 
the more general notion of the Holy Scriptures at large, in 
which all his revealed will is set forth. Under each of these 
notions the love of the regenerate heart is elicited. It no | 
longer finds discontent in the pure and lofty spiritual holi- 
ness embodied in the moral law and required in the obedi- 
ence of every creature. It sees in the moral law only the 
formal articulation into definite requirements of that eternal 
distinction of right which is felt to be essentially obligatory. 
Holiness has become sweet to the taste of the regenerate 
heart, and it exults in the law which requires, and, when 
obeyed, develops it. The law which once seemed the harsh 
bond of an impracticable purity has become the embodi- 
ment of all justice, wisdom, purity, and goodness, the noble 
standard to define and stimulate every attainment in excel- 
lence. It is the universal bond of right. Its very penalty 
is felt to be the indispensable sanction of a law for creatures 
who are to exist forever, and its execution the necessary and 
natural, and altogether righteous, consequence of law eter- 
nally violated. Under its positive aspects it regards the 
statutes of the Lord as always right and wise, adapted to 
the conditions of mankind, when ordered to be observed, 
and to the purposes of the divine Lawgiver in making them. 
But under its broader aspect as the word of God, the regen- 


Tar EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 199 


erate heart finds an inexhaustible fountain of strength and 
comfort in its grand doctrines of covenanted grace; in its 
promises, which animate faith and obedience to ardent en- 
ergy; in its assurances of divine love, which fill the soul with 
grateful joy; and in its prophecies of the triumph and com- 
ing glory of the kingdom, which fill hope with exultant 
visions of glory, honor, and immortality. In its lessons of 
covenanted grace, in its histories of the kingdom, in its 
biographies of the saints, in its wise and faithful warnings, 
in its firm pledges of all the grace needful for every emer- 
gency of the Christian career, the renewed heart finds an 
abundance of priceless truth; and the word of God becomes 
inexpressibly dear. It is the daily counsellor and com- 
panion, the guide in all activity, the solace in every afflic- 
tion, of the Christian soul. Nothing could be in stronger 
contrast to the feelings of the unregenerate heart towards 
the word of God. 

Another_striking expression of this changed affection is_ 
towards the ordinance of prayer. The renewed soul delights 
to_pray ; it feels a necessity for prayer so imperious that the 
command and broad warrant to pray seems not so much to 
define a duty as to secure and exalt an immeasurable privi- 
lege, The old carnal reluctance and disgust at prayer has 
given way to a delighted appreciation of a boundless fran- 
chise, which makes its employment at once the necessity and 
joy of daily existence. There is now no need to drive him, 
as before, to a reluctant and joyless observance. He has 
learned to love to pray, and he delights to draw near to the 
throne where grace is reigning through righteousness unto 
eternal life. 

Yet another manifestation of this new love in the heart is 
a similar valuation and delight in all the ordinances of the 
house of God. The regenerated man has learned to love the 
church of Christ, not only in its worship, but in its work; 
not only in its ordinances, but in its organization. The 


2.00 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


preaching of the gospel, the sacraments, the songs of praise, 
the whole appointed service of the sanctuary, the Sabbath, 
and all the active demands of the Christian sacrifice and 
service, now give him a noble satisfaction. The growth and 
extension of the organized church, all that involves its honor, 
purity, and successful accomplishment of its grand ends in 
the spread of the gospel, and its establishment in the whole 
world, concern him; he takes a share and a delight in it all. 

Yet another display of this new affection is the delight it 


creates 7n meditation on the things of grace. Love delights 


in thoughts and reveries about the object loved. To the un- 


holy heart the thought of God is unpleasing; it remembers 
him, and is troubled, as a guilty conscience even in a be- 


liever will be. The remembrance of him is banished as soon 


as may be; God is not in all his thoughts; often for long 


periods literally forgotten, and always unwelcome when the 
recollection returns. This form of atheism is the direct re- 
sult of that carnal mind which is enmity against God; but 


when that unnatural feeling is subdued by regenerating 


grace, he lives in the thoughts of the purified soul—often, 
literally, in all his thoughts—because the meditation of him, 


bitter to hatred, has become sweet to love. It also embraces. 
Christ as the Saviour, the Spirit as the Paraclete, and all the 


truth in which his grace has revealed itself to human hope. 
The same renewed affection shows its noble regenerate 
energy in its disposition and dealings with the will of God, 
as manifested in the orderings of his providence. Tt shows 
itself in contentment with the orderings of his allotments in 


life. It shows itself in patient and trustful endurance of 


sorrow and afiliction. It animates the heart by an unfalter- 
ing confidence in Christ, and in the pledges of his grace; in 
the love of the Spirit and in his fidelity to his trust; in the 


fatherhood of God, and in the assurances of his protection. 


When the storm of providential trial is so sore as apparently 


to sweep the breaking heart from the rock of its salvation, it 


a 


THE EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 201 


will still patiently struggle to regain its foothold, and will 
always blame its own weakness and unbelief rather than to | 
charge God foolishly. The renewed heart clings to God in 
Christ as its only safety and hope. It spoke out in Job’s 
grand confession and vow of faithfulness, “though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him.” 

This same renewed affection determines also a new set of 
dislikes as well as likes, and in this, too, its reality and its 
true nature appears. It determines an honest hatred to sin. 
It dreads temptation. It shrinks from the fascinations of an 
unholy world. It dreads everything that may obscure its. 
view of Christ and the plan of salvation. It hates its own 
unbelief, its own hardness of heart, its own pride, selfish- 
ness, and self-righteousness, its own ingratitude and coldness 
of affection. It abhors its own sinful tendencies and its own 
imperfect efforts at obedience. It is full of self-distrust. It 
determines repentance for sin. The regenerate heart is the 
contrite and broken heart. Such are some of the leading 
manifestations and proofs of that fruit of the Spirit the 
apostle designates as love. 

3. The second member of the fruits of the Spirit as given in 
the Scriptures is yoy. The gospel is glad tidings of great 
joy. When the gospel is realized by that faith which is the 
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not 
seen, the necessary effect of its intrinsic gladness is to pro- 
duce joy. The absence of joy at any time in a Christian 
soul is due solely to the fact that his faith for the time being, 
and during all that _ time of paralyzed comfort, is not doing 

justice to the truth of the glad gospel of infinite grace. The 
- command is, “rejoice in the Lord,” notin one’s self, not in what 

has been given and made ours, either by nature or grace, 
but in the Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” and with 
emphatic reduplication, “again I say unto you, rejoice.” 
_Rejoice in the Lord; for all safety and_comfort are in him. 
Rejoice in him at all times; for at no time does his grace fail, 


re rae ont Ae re me 


a 


202 GiFts To UNBELIEVERS. 


Rejoice in times of sorrow; for the presence of the good 
Physician is a comfort even in sickness. Rejoice in times of 
trial; for trouble does not grow out of the ground, and he 
presides over all the remedial afflictions which he sends. 
Rejoice in him at all times; for he is never absent, never 
forgetful, never indifferent, and always bound by his gracious 
promise to make all things work together for good to them 
that love God and are the called according to his purpose. 
The absence of joy at any time ought to set every regenerate 
soul to diligent endeavor to bring back this dear fruit of the 
Spirit. Why should a regenerate soul go mourning all the 
‘day long? 

4. The next of the series is peace, ‘Being justified by 
faith, we have peace with God.” The cause of controversy 
between him and man is sin; that necessarily produces the 
condemnation of the King, and the hazard of the law. Peace 
can only come by taking away sin. The atonement of Christ 
is the only thing that can take sin away; and the necessary 
effect of the application of his blood is peace with God. 
This peace, based on the absolute extinction of all threaten- 
ing claims, reflects itself on the mind of the forgiven sinner, 
and there is peace within him as well as without him, peace 
of conscience as well as peace in law. Fresh transgression 
may disturb this peace, but the way is always open to restore 
it; fresh repentance and fresh application to the atoning 
blood will yield fresh peace. As transgression will disturb 
obedience wili increase, this peace, and_as it is the function 
of regenerating grace to secure obedience, that grace has 
more than one channel through which it brings: peace. ~All 
regenerate souls should seek for the habitual presence of this 
fruit of the Spirit. Peace and joy are not merely to be 
prized as pleasant companions to our thoughts; but because 
they do to a most important extent condition our ability, 
zeal, and faithfulness in our service. “The joy of the Lord 
is our strength.” 


Y 


THE EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 203 


5. The next fruit of the Spirit in the test of the apostle zs 
dong-suffering. There is abundant occasion for this grace in 
any world like this. Selfishness reigns in it; injustice and 
open violence are the fruits of selfishness. Breaches of 
faith, treachery and fraud, insolence and unjust aggression, 
aunkindness_ and want of sympathy justly due, make many a 
demand on the resentful passions. The natural heart yields 

freely to these impulses, and all the more freely because it 
commonly feels justified in doing it. But such yielding gene- 
rally makes matters worse, instead of healing them. The re- 
generate heart, whenever grace is allowed a fair chance to 
assert its real quality, is full of sensibility to its own faults 
and infirmities, and is, therefore, more forbearing towards the 
faults and infirmities of others. As by the tender love of 
God its own sins are forgiven, it is all the more ready to for- 
give. The spirit of forbearance is this spirit of forgiveness 
in_a_certain relation to offences; it refuses to retaliate; and 
its presence, ruling the instincts of resentment and revenge, 


is_a fruit of regenerating grace, and a noble. proof. of. its 
_ power_and beauty. Coming into open conflict, as it does, 


with the pride and pugnacious instincts of an unholy nature, 
this grace of long-suffering under injury and insult is often 
misjudged and subjected to opprobrious names in the pas- 
sionate and blind judgments of men; but it is, nevertheless, 
a noble sample and proof of the regenerating grace of God. 
The indulgence of the opposite spirit will bring protracted 
and bitter sorrow into any Christian life. The high estimate 
put on this noble self-control in the word of God is the 
standard by which to judge it. 

6. The next specification of the series is genéleness, One 
of the most prominent and dangerous developments pro- 
duced by the depraving of the moral nature in man is found 
in the corruption and dangerous exasperation of a sensibility 
natural to every moral as well as to every animal being—the 
natural provision to secure self-protection and to repel un- 


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204 GIFTS TO UNBELIEVERS. 


lawful aggression upon vested rights. Anger is not essen- 
tially and necessarily a wicked feeling. Christ was said to 
be angry on two occasions in his sinless life. But as affected 
by the corrupt condition of the human heart, superinduced 
by sin, it has become one of the most dangerous energies in 
human nature. Gentleness stands opposed to all sinful 
manifestations of anger in word or in deed, or in the secret 
motions of the silent soul. It prevents all hasty and unjust. 
uprising of angry feelings; it controls speech into mildness 
and courtesy; it restrains the hand from violence. It breeds 
the spirit of kindness in lieu of the spirit of harshness; it. 
breeds patience instead of irritability. It throws the sweet, 
subduing power of love and kindness over the provocations, 
even the just provocations, of life. It reduces anger to its 
proper place, and only allows it in the defence of just rights, 
the repulse of unlawful aggression, and when the honor of 
God demands it. .No ornament of character is more beauti- 
tiful than that fruit of the Spirit and_that_ proof of regener- 
ating grace, the gentleness of an humble and good_ heart, 
ruling all the stormy impulses of the soul, refining the man-. 
ners, and coloring with its noble beauty the words, acts, and 
character of a regenerate man, When combined with cour- 


age, fortitude, and_strength of will, it presents the noblest. 
combination possible to human nature. 


7. Yet another fruit of the Spirit and evidence of regen- 
eration is goodness. Sin mars the sympathies natural to 
the common nature and brotherhood of the human kind. 
Amid the wreck and ruin wrought on the moral nature of 
fallen man, enough of the quality of his original make has 
survived in a damaged condition to make even the culture 
of natural means effective in developing the virtues of 
benevolence, humanity, and kindness. Even this is indi- 
rectly due to the influence of the Holy Spirit in holding 
back the natural tendency of moral evil to rush steadily 
along the line of perpetual declension from one degree of 


THE EVIDENCES oF REGENERATION. 205 


evil to another. Hence the possibility of civilization and 
the ties of society among the heathen and the ungodly 
masses of Christian lands. These virtues of humanity, 
wherever found, show a marvelous beauty to the admiring 
eye. But regenerating grace develops them into nobler forms 
than moral culture can ever do. It leads to, and yet beyond, 
those occasions for their exercise which are found in the 
evils of this present life, and which limit benevolence in its 
mere natural and cultivated form. It carries the unselfish 
and generous sympathies to the relief of the higher spiritual 
evils which threaten a far deeper disaster than any mere 
earthly calamities. It produces not only the asylums and 
other contrivances for the care of the orphan and the suffer- 
ing poor, in which mere humanity may take a part, but all 
the grand works of Christian enterprise for the salvation of 
the world, in which mere humanity, however cultured, takes 


no general interest. This goodness, which is the fruit of 


irit lifie nole character; it sweetens the 
Sympathies ;_it refines the manners; it makes charitable the. 


social judgments, and chastens the social relations of men 
into sources of safety and comfort. It tends to make men 
good in every relation of life—good fathers and mothers, 
good husbands and wives, good friends and neighbors. It 


throws the sweet sympathies of a purified heart over all the 
connections and events of this strange world. If any man 


hopes and believes that the regenerating erace of God has. 
displayed_its power upon his soul, without making him a 
better man, more honest, more just, more pure, more kind, 
._more obedient to God, more useful to man, he may subject 
his_hope and confidence of grace to very serious discount. 


Grace breeds goodness in all its forms; the fruit of the 
Spirit carries always a betterment to man, both in himself, 
and in all his relations. This is its necessary effect. 

8. The next fruit of the Spirit in the enumeration of the 


apostle is faith. Saving faith is everywhere described in 


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206 Girts TO UNBELIEVERS. 


the Scriptures as “the fruit of the Spirit,” and the “ gift of 
God.” It manifests itself in renouncing absolutely all other 


rounds of hope towards God but the merits and grace of 
Christ. It is conspicuously faith in Christ, a personal | trust 
in_his redeeming work, in his personal love, power, and faith- 
fulness, in his promises, in all the statements of fact_and 
doctrine he has made. It_accepts the whole word of God; 
it_admits the laws it prescribes; and obeys because it. ‘he- 
_lieves. It_relies upon the pledged word and promise of, 
grace, and expects the fulfilment of every pledge. It trusts in 


his administration of events, and, no matter how dark and 
mysterious his providences may seem, relies unshaken on 
his wisdom, love, and faithfulness. It gives evidence to 
things unseen, and substance to things of hope, and thus 
sees the gleam of heaven far in the dim clouds of the mystic 


future. It brings peace and hope; it renews strength; it 
animates patience; it impels obedience; it saves the soul. 
Wherever faith is seen in its effects, 11 demonstrates a re- 
generate heart. 

9. The next item in the series is meekness. This opposes 
the pride _and_self-righteousness of the unrenewed_soul. 
Pride_is undue_self-esteem; self-righteousness; a_claim to 
integrity of life and character. [When the spiritual illum- 
ination of regeneration takes effect, both of these feel- 
ings perish in the awful consciousness of inward pollution 
and personal guilt, and meekness and humility take their 
place.] 

10. The last specification is temperance. This does not 
mean merely sobriety; it is a far broader term; it means 7e- 

_ straint, and covers all the passions and evil impulses of the 


soul. Regeneration does not at once make the regenerate 
soul completely holy; but _it does fill it, not only with posi- 
tive impelling forces towards holiness, but with powerful 
principles of restraint upon all the evil still left within the 
soul—upon the workings of the law of sin in the members. 


THE EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 207 


A enaracter and life which claims to be regenerate must 
show a restraint on evil impulses, generally effective, or the 
claim is nothing worth. 

11. We must rapidly condense the remaining tests of re- 
generation; but as these have already been substantially 
discussed in the exposition of the nature of this wonderful 
work of divine grace, this brevity will not be unfaithfulness. 
to the truth. As the ruling moral element, when depraved, 
affected the memory, conscience, judgment, and all the 
actions of the outward conduct, so will the same moral 
element when purified by regenerating grace. Conscience 
will become more clear-sighted, more delicate in its discrimi- 
nations, and more masterful in its authority. Memory will 
become more tenacious of moral and religious ideas. The 
judgment will become more accurate in its discernment of 
moral and religious truth. The sense of wit and humor 
will be purified. All the powers of the human spirit will feel 
more or less directly the effect of grace in the heart. The 
whole external life will feel its controlling energy, and all 
will testify to the reality and the power of this great spiritual 
movement. ‘Old things will pass away; behold, all things 
will become new.” 


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GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


CHAPTER IL 


THH SPHCIAL GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF TO 
BELIHVERS. 


‘‘ Wherefore J also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and 
love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of 
you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, 
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his in- 
heritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power 
to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.” — 
Paul to the Ephesians. 


ti. HESE words of the apostle carry the statement of 

a ereat gospel truth which has suffered something 

of an eclipse in the apprehension of the church of our day, 
a truth, the absence of which is sorely felt in the experience, 
in the diminished comfort and efficiency of believers. That 
truth is the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers as such. It 
is not to be confounded with the gift of the Spirit in regen- 
eration, and in the grant of that saving faith which 1s em- 
phatically said to be “the fruit of the Spirit” and “the gilt 
of God.” Paul gives thanks for the faith and love to all the 
saints which he had heard was in these Ephesian Christians. 
He fully recognized them as already believers, as already 
animated with that love of the brethren which is one of the 
proofs of a regenerate heart.* He then goes on to tell them 
how he prayed unceasingly that the God and Father of the 


*1 John iii. 14._. 
O11 


Al eee GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


Lord Jesus would give to them another gift, special influences 
of the Holy Spirit, who was already dwelling in them, by 
which another measure of spiritual illumination would be 
imparted to them, and by which they might be led unto 
higher and sweeter views of the hope of their calling, of the 
inheritance of the Father in them, and of the greatness of 
power pledged to their salvation. There can be no doubt of 
the peculiarity of the gift to which he alludes. It is not re- 
generation ; for it is to be given to the regenerate. It is not 
faith; for it is sought for those who already believe. It is 
not one of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit peculiar to 
the apostolic age; for it was sought for those who are recog- 
nized simply by their faith and love to the brethren. Nor is 
it the gift of inspiration peculiar to the apostles and certain 
apostolic men; for it is sought in the prayers of Paul for the 
whole body of the Ephesian Christians, merely as Christians. 
The effects ascribed to it, the increased vigor of spiritual en- 
lightenment, and the consequent improved apprehension of 
the truths of the gospel, clearly indicate that the gift was not 
miraculous, or confined to any special class of Christians, 
but was designed to minister to the spiritual graces of all 
who believe. Nor is it to be confounded with the indwelling 
of the Spirit, which is already begun in every believer. Yet 
it is called a gift of the Spirit to believers. The Spirit in one 
sense being already given and already dwelling in the be- 
liever, this gift must refer to some special manifestation of 
the Spirit’s power, which may be properly designated as a 
distinct gift of the Spirit himself. This suggests the last 
negative distinction of this peculiar gift of the Spirit to be- 
lievers: it is not to be confounded with the process of sanc- 
tification. It is rather a means of sanctification than the 
result in sanctification, though the result always follows it, 
and is the ultimate end sought in granting the gift. Itseems 
to be designed to keep the attention of the body of believers 
fixed on their dependence, their incessant dependence, on 


Tur SprectaAL GIFT oF THE Hony SPIRIT. aS 


fresh energies of the indwelling Spirit, constantly put forth 
and repeated to secure the sanctification of the soul. It is 
in the apprehension of the necessity for these ever-fresh and 
renewed manifestations of the Spirit’s grace that the eclipse 
in the apprehension of the truth to which we alluded takes 
place. There is no decay in the full recognition of the neces- 
sity and nature of sanctification ; the faith that every believ- 
ing soul will ultimately be perfectly purified is intact. But 
the defect lies here: sanctification is rather expected than 
worked for; rather anticipated as the necessary growth of the 
germ implanted in regeneration than a development de- 
pendent on positive cultivation on the part of man, and on 
positive energies distinctly and designedly put forth on the 
part of the great efficient agent, the Holy Ghost. More dan- 
gerous still, even when sought in the active use of appointed 
means and service, sanctification is looked for as a result to 
be expected as the consequence of a certain steadiness and 
fidelity in this use of means, rather than as a work to be ac- 
complished really by the Holy Ghost, and by as distinct and 
definite a series of actions in accomplishing the work of sanc- 
tification as is necessary in doing every sustained and con- 
stant work. The work of the Spirit is to be accomplished 
by the acts of the Spirit, and while the steady use of means 
is rigorcusly demanded by the divine rule, the mind is with 
equal imperativeness required not to rest at all in these means, 
but always to look beyond them for the effective power. There 
is an intense force and precision in the gospel doctrine that 
sanctification is by the Spirit. It is his work, to be accom- 
plished by his special acts. These special actions of the 
indwelling Spirit are his gifts to believers, and being depend- 
ent on special energies manifested by the Spirit, are war- 
rantably described as the gift of the Spirit himself to believers. 
The prayer of Paul for the Christians of Ephesus instructs 
us that we must look to a definite gift of the Holy Ghost, and 
to definite acts of that gracious giver, as well as gifts, to work 


214 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


out our deliverance from the inward power of sin, and our 
inward endowment with the power of holiness. The apostle 
here teaches what is abundantly taught in other Scriptures, 
the inexpressibly cheering and comforting doctrine that there 
is a special gift of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter, or, more 
exactly, the Paraclete, provided for the saint in the covenant 
of God’s wonderful grace, a gift different from regenerating 
grace, yet working to the same end, and designed to make 
him acquainted with all the strength, the moral beauty, and 
the glorious comfort of the true believer in the Son of 
God. | 

2. These special acts of the Holy Spirit in carrying out 
the work of sanctification are manifold: he seals, he anoznts, 
he bears witness, he gives assurance as an earnest, he leads, 
he intercedes, he comforts, he brings to mind, he expresses a 
peculiar affection, and he animates the private and public 
worship of the believer in all its acts,—in the songs of praise, 
in reading the Scriptures, in listening to the preaching of 
the word, in the offering of gifts, and in the use of the sacra- 
ments. ‘The inexpressible grace and value of these gifts of 
the Holy Spirit will appear in the exposition of them, and 
emphatically through the prior consideration of the neces- 
sity for them, as it appears in the defects of the Christian 
experience of believers in our day. That experience, in 
spite of many advantages peculiar to the present age, and of 
many trials well suited to improve the graces of a regenerate 
heart, does not seem to differ advantageously from that of 
other times in many important respects. In some respects 
the Christian activity of this age is greatly in advance of the 
activity of most of the previous ages of the Christian era, 
and no doubt the immediate agents in this improved activity 
do enjoy an answerable degree of inward grace and comfort, 
certainly a large percentage of them. Yet, considering the 


bulk of the members of the Christian church, it will not be 


unwarranted to say that they do not exhibit an experience 


Tur SprecraL Girt oF tHE Hony SPIRIT. 215 


in keeping with the recognized character and privileges of a 
Christian as these are delineated and authorized in the 
Scriptures. So far as a long pastoral experience has un- 
veiled the facts in typical instances, it is unquestionable that 
the bulk of modern Christians are living far below the grade 
of both character and comfort to which they are not only 
authorized, but required, to aspire and attain. The prevail- 
ing measure of activity in Christian work is not attended 
with an answerable measure of Christian joy,—a state of 
things which discloses a defect in the work as well as in the 
comfort. Look at the elements involved in the case. Every 
Christian is rightly recognized, according to the positive 
statements of the Christian gospel, as a sinner actually 
saved. An actual salvation is positively pledged to the ex- 
ercise of faith. By the supposition that he is a Christian, 
he has complied with the terms on which the promise of de- 
liverance binds, and he is, therefore, secured by the integrity 
of a God whose faithfulness is like the great mountains. His 
state has changed from one of infinite disaster to one of 
infinite advantage. His sins are pardoned; he is delivered 
from the hazards of violated law. A positive righteousness 
has been imputed to him, which carries a sure title to eter- 
nal life. He has been adopted into the family of God, and 
has become his child. The Holy Ghost has taken up his 
abode in his soul to secure his integrity, and to make good 
the promise to faith, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” 
His salvation is assured; it is already begun; its progress 
and ultimate completion are guaranteed by the pledge that 
he who has begun the good work will complete it. The en- 
gagement to faith is absolute. The truth and power of the 
infinite and infallible God stand guard over his hope. He 
has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that 
which is to come. Grace sufficient for him is positively cov- 
-enanted. He is by position the most fortunate and _ blest. 
of mortals; a true Christian can look down from an infinite 


216 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


elevation on the most favored station of mere earthly ad- 
vantage. He that believeth, hath eternal life. This is his 
actual state by grace and covenant. Unquestionably he 
ought to be zn feeling what he is in law and in fact, the hap- 
piest of mortals. But what is he in reality, so far as the 
states of his mind are concerned? As a rule, he is a prey to 
anxiety; he goes in bondage to fear. The idea of death is 
full of pain. Sin is a constant menace to his peace. The 
way of life through the mediation of Christ lies confused 
and cloudy in his thoughts. His graces are so incompe- 
tently developed that he hardly knows how to construe them, 
whether as sound or unsound. Now a grace will seem hope- 
ful, and then it changes into an appearance which is untrust- 
worthy. He knows not how far to confide in his faith, or 
hope, or love, or any part of his experience. He clings to 
his hope, but has little comfort in it. He shrinks from trials, 
though he knows that they come as proofs of divine love and 
fidelity. His obedience is steadily rendered, for the most 
part, but without conscious joy or sweetness in rendering it. 
He has often more dread of God than hope and affection to 
him. His religion, honestly judged, is more a source of 
trouble than of satisfaction. He is timid and uncertain in 
claiming the character of Christian, which, nevertheless, he 
would not give up for his life; and he frequently thinks it a 
commendable humility not to aspire to the joy and comfort 
of the Christian’s hope, professing himself content to be 
without these if he can only be satisfied that he is a true 
Christian, although not happy. He fails to appreciate the 
suspicion thrown on the claim to the Christian character by 
the absence of the Christian comfort. He is actually draw- 
ing consolation from the defects and diseases of his spirit. 
The contrast between his state under the covenant and the 
state of his consciousness is wonderful, and as criminal as it 
is amazing. 

3. The causes of this unhappy condition of things are 


THE SPECIAL GIFTS OF THE Hoty SPptIrir. OAT 


many and various. It springs in chief part from wunbe- 
lief; from a want of confidence in Christ—in his teachings, 
in his promises, in the real power of his blood and right- 
eousness. This lack of confidence is a defect in the degree 
and a weakness in the exercise of faith—not a total want of 
the principle of faith; for the existence of the germ of faith 
and spiritual life is presupposed in the character of Christian. 
When our Lord upbraided the twelve for their unbelief and 
hardness of heart he brought to light the paradox which 
appears in the experience of all his saints: of faith and un- 
belief co-existing and contending in the same heart. It is 
but one manifestation of the perpetual conflict between the 
law of grace in the mind and the law of sin in the members. 
When the faith is weak unbelief is strong, and when unbe- 
lief prevails, the whole arrangement of the covenant loses its 
consolatory energy; the power of the atonement ceases to 
control the bitterness of sin; the ordinances lose their power 
to awaken hope; and the trials of faith, which are real strains 
upon its strength, often appear to have destroyed it altogether. 
Prayer has been so often disappointed that a general suspi- 
cion of its efficacy is bred, and then prayer continues to be 
offered more from a sense of duty, or a vague dread of 
neglecting it, than from any lively sense of its power or real 
value. Expectation of answers to it is thus blunted, and the 
ordinance is effectually nullified. What is true of prayer is 
true of all the rest of the ordinances, and the whole series is 
dishonored by this undisguised triumph of unbelief and the 
law of sin in the members. 

Another cause of the prevalent anxiety is carelessness in 
living; sin indulged in many forms; acting from selfish im- 
pulses instead of regard to the will of God; transgressions 
srowing out of heedlessness ; absorption in business; en- 
eagement in improper pleasures ; languor of spiritual desire ; 
unsteadiness and the want of engaged and earnest feeling 
in using the means of grace. Such things are sufficient to 


918 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


account for defeated prayer and poverty of comfort. David 
knew that if he regarded iniquity in his heart the Lord 
would not hear him. 

Another cause is found in ignorance, or at least in incom- 
petent conceptions of the great gospel grounds of hope. The 
range of this cause of defects in Christian experience is so 
wide and varied that it will be impossible to expound it in its 
full extent. There is one of constant prevalence, the often 
unconscious substitution of the legal spirit of obedience for 
the free and gracious spirit of evangelical service. Zhe spirit 
of obedience to the law of works is applied to the terms of 
gospel grace. 'The maxim of legal obedience is, do and Live, 
comply with the demands of the established law, and then 
hope for life. The maxim of evangelical service is, believe 
and then do, accept the free gifts of a gracious salvation, and 
then go on to obey. The spirit of these two rules of action 
is widely different by the necessity of the case. The spirit 
of the law necessarily breeds dependence on seif; something 
is to be done, and we are to doit. The spirit of free service 
breeds dependence on a basis of hope out of self, and the 
energy it creates looks for its support to that foundation out 
of self. The spirit of legal obedience unavoidably breeds 
endless anxiety, through fear of failure in complying with 
the conditions prescribed. The spirit of evangelical obedi- 
ence accepts a full salvation as the free gift of infinite grace; 
anxieties are thus forestalled by faith; and the obedience 
secured by it is unselfish, free, affectionate, and hopeful. 
But there is such a thing as applying in our ignorance the 
spirit of legal obedience to the terms of grace, and where 
this is done the terms of grace will yield the same anxieties 
and the same appeals to self-help with the conditions of law. 
Faith is the instrument by which salvation is secured, the 
eye that sees the Saviour, the hand that takes hold of him, 
and it is, therefore, easily construed as a strict legal condi- 
tion precedent of salvation. Under this view of it the whole 


Tus SpectAL GIFT OF THE HoLy SPIRIT. 919 


effort will be directed to comply with it in exactly the same 
spirit as would be developed by a real legal antecedent to 
the blessing. Instead of looking outward to the Saviour and 
to his great work, the mind is turned inward on what is going 
on within itself. Instead of fixing attention on the free full 
offer of the gift of eternal life, and construing faith as the 
simple acceptance of that offer, faith is looked upon as be- 
coming a part of the offer itself, and as so conditioning and 
qualifying it that the condition must be complied with before 
it can be accepted. This is to say, it must be accepted 
before it is accepted. Instead of looking out to the proposal 
of infinite love, the attention is turned inward to scrutinize 
the faith of the soul itself, and until that faith is certified all 
the uncertainties and anxieties of the legal spirit are turned 
loose inthe heart. Itis as absurd as it would be for a traveler 
to stop at the head of a bridge and turn his thoughts inward 
on his own mind to see if he had confidence in the bridge, 
instead of looking outward at the bridge itself to see if it was 
worthy cf his confidence. This grave folly in construing the 
plan of salvation accounts for a large measure of the anxie- 
ties of Christian people. They have unconsciously passed 
from a trust in the Saviour to a trust in their own faith. No 
wonder they are troubled. The gift of the Holy Spirit to 
guide them away from such an error, and to keep the way of 
life clear in their thoughts, is an invaluable blessing. 
Another cause of Christian anxieties is in the incompetent 
views of the breadth and power of the redemptive work of 
Christ the Saviour of sinners. It is a marked feature in the 
administration of grace, that while it pledges an absolute 
salvation to every believer, from his sin as well as from its 
effects, it does not undertake to do this completely and at 
once. The promise which takes effect at the beginning of 
the exercise of faith is, “‘sin shall not have dominion over 
you.” That means that sin shall not be the ruling or master 
principle in the regenerate soul. But the promise also im- 


22.0) GIFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


plies that sin shall have a standing, and exert a certain measure 
of influence in every such soul. This is universally admitted 
of the great mass of average Christians, at least by all classes 
of Christian interpreters. Saints are therefore not sinless; 
they continually come short of their real duties; the law of 
sin in the members is in constant conflict with the law of 
grace in their minds. Now sin is a natural and necessary 
fountain of suffering, and when the believer sins he may 
expect to suffer. The consolations of a good hope of final 
deliverance, while they will powerfully modify the suffering 
of sin, will not absolutely extinguish it. But as a matter of 
fact, his suffering is needlessly intensified and prolonged by 
his ignorance and incompetent views of the redemption 
wrought out for him. 

There are two distinct elements of evil in sin: its essential 
evil, and the danger it provokes. The one calls for repent- 
ance; the other is to be met by the energy of the atonement. 
It is healthful to the soul to repent, and the suffering which 
is involved in repentance may be so qualified by grace that 
the exercises of a contrite heart may have an element of 
positive delight intermingled with its grief. In this appears 
one form of the gospel paradox, or apparent contradiction 
in terms, “rejoicing in tribulation,” and this ought to be the 
regular and permanent state of feeling in a Christian soul in 
view of his sin. But in reference to the other element of 
sin—the danger it involves—however he may suffer from 
certain effects of his faults, he is entitled to peace, because 
_ his sin has been forgiven him, and the salvation which has 
been pledged to him gives him assurance of deliverance, both 
from sin and its dangers. By the very supposition that he 
is a Christian, he is a sinner justified by grace, “justified 
from all things,” as it is stated; and being justified by faith, 
through the blood and righteousness of Christ, he has peace 
with God. If this blood and righteousness are really imbued 
with a power to give real peace, beyond all question the 


THE SPECIAL GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 291 


want of peace is proof beyond a doubt that that power is in- 
competently apprehended. The anxiety of the Christian 
heart would always be quelled by a competent view of this 
great gospel ground of hope. The anxiety of believers, grow- 
ing out of their many infirmities and faults, is chiefly on two 
accounts: they fear either that their sin demonstrates the 
unsoundness of their claim to the character of a Christian, 
or that it exposes them to the judgments of God. The 
acknowledged fact that a saint is not sinless is of itself prooi 
that all sin is not a proof of radical unsoundness. The 
power of the atonement made by the great High Priest 
is utterly discounted if it cannot arrest the judicial expres- 
sions of divine wrath. The presumptuous sin of a believer 
will be sure of chastisement. The disciplinary cure of all 
his sins, whether distinctively presumptuous or not, will call 
for chastening, but this will be done all in love. The power 
of the blood of Christ is complete. 

To suppose his blood competent to take away sins that are 
past, and to suspend its efficacy over sins subsequent to the 
original period of justification, is to discount its value 
altogether. If it saves a man only from the sins of the past, 
and leaves him to perish under the sins of the future, it can- 
not be said to save him at all. In that case there can be no 
such thing as Christian hope. Hope is the effect of things. 
surely promised, yet not actually given into possession, and 
it is intended for the present comfort of the future possessor. 
But if there is no assurance, covering the future, in the pro- 
mise given, the expectation of possession would be presump- 
tion, but not a basis of rational hope. The legal spirit of the 
carnal mind, and the self-righteous spirit of the unenlighted 
natural heart, will say that this assurance of forgiveness to 
future sin will breed presumption and carelessness in living. 
This has always been the cavil of the carnal mind against 
the redemption of grace; but it utterly forgets or disregards 
the fact that the grace which freely forgives, at the same 


DA, GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


time renews and purifies the heart; and the justified sinner 
so decisively revolts against sin, that nothing delights him 
so much as to be delivered from it. In becoming alive unto 
holiness he becomes dead to sin; and as Paul puts it, “how 
can he that is dead to sin live any longer therein?” The 
objection also disregards the fact that the Holy Ghost dwells 
in every justified sinner for the very purpose of making good 
the promise, ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you.” The 
sinner, then, who is justified by faith, is commanded to go 
boldly to the throne of grace, that he may find mercy, and 
obtain grace to help in time of need. 

Whenever, therefore, he is overtaken in a fault, he ought 
not to discount the power of the atonement, nor discredit the 
sure promise of God; but always go at once and confess it 
to the great High Priest and sue out his pardon afresh. 
Trusting in Jesus he can be sure of pardon. The great mis- 
take of Christians when overtaken in a fault is, that they 
think it necessary to keep away from the great loving Priest 
of the covenant until they have gone through some self- 
righteous series of duties, or some penance, or self-punish- 
ment, until they have suffered something of the pain they 
know they have deserved to suffer. By these self-saving 
expedients their distress is needlessly prolonged; and in their 
complacent sense of self-righteous behavior they discount 
the power of the saving blood and the tender pity of a 
sinner’s Saviour. No wonder they suffer; no wonder they 
suffer more than was originally necessary. He who has any 
adequate spiritual discernment of the real power and scope 
of the great redemption will feel abundant encouragement 
to go at once with the heartfelt confession of his sins, and 
will speedily return realizing the blessed paradox of sorrow 
for his sin and peace in his Redeemer. No sin, however 
truly and rightfully it may give occasion to repentance, can 
long overpower the peace and hope of him who, adequately 
conceiving the power of the great redemption, humbly trusts 


THE SpreciaL Girr or tHe Hoty Sprrrr. 2S 


in the mediation of the great High Priest. Inadequate con- 
ceptions of his work and his grace will leave the heart a 
prey to fear, and accounts in large degree for the anxicties of - 
Christians. 

Another cause of the prevailing want of settled peace and 
liberty in the experience of believers is found in their incom- 
petent views of the gospel doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The 
sadness of the believer is greatly due to the conscious failure 
of his struggle against sin. In a true Christian soul there is 
maintained from the beginning of his spiritual life a conflict 
with the indwelling sin of his heart, to which his experience 
of grace has made him keenly sensitive. The flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. The law 
of grace in the mind warreth against the law of sin in the mem- 
bers. The two are essentially contrary, che one to the other. 
Now the one, and now the other, gains the ascendency. In 
this unceasing and bitter conflict his peace departs, and his 
heart becomes a prey to anxiety; his feelings are expressed 
by one suffering from the same cause: “O wretched man 
that Iam! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 
The power of the gospel provisions of grace to cheer and 
comfort in the midst of this experience is discovered in the 
expiession of joyous thankfulness which immediately follows 
that sad complaint: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord.” These two contrasted expressions bring to light 
again the paradox of the Christian joy in the midst of the 
Christian suffering. The realization of the stubborn strength 
of his inward sin is a perpetual source of anxiety, but the 
realization of the gracious provisions of the covenant, and 
the assurance of complete ultimate victory, is equally full of 
power to conquer fear and to inspire the cheerfulness of 
assured hope. 

One of those great provisions is revealed in the gospel 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit. His work in the human heart 
is so delineated in the record as to provide amply for the 


4 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


joy, and peace of the believing sinner, no matter how much 
he may be troubled by the consciousness of his own infirmity 
and his habitual sinfulness. The Holy Spirit is represented 
as “dwelling” in every regenerate soul. He undertakes to 
sanctify it. All its state is fully known to him before he 
undertakes this work. He is fully acquainted from the be- 
ginning with all its weakness, and with all its wickedness. His 
omniscient eye has foreseen all the future sins which will 
emerge out of this inward pollution. He completely appre- 
clates each and all of these things, all of this habitual ten- 
dency to sin, at their full significance. No future expression 
of its evil will ever take him by surprise, or show him an 
element of provocation which is new or strange to him. Yet, 
in full view of all this mass of pollution fully foreseen and 
fully appreciated, he nevertheless deliberately enters into 
that unholy soul as into his own home and workshop. He 
is not a mere transient visitor, ‘a traveler that turneth aside 
to tarry but a night.” He enters, too, for the very purpose 
of subduing the evils into which he goes. He enters under 
a covenant pledge to make good the promise to the believing 
sinner, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” 

He is bound by high treaty obligations to do this work—a 
work which he fully understands to be the conquest of the 
very sins which breed the misery of the saintly soul. He 
knows, too, that under the mysterious, but wise, appointment 
of the divine Saviour his work will not be completed until 
the close of the natural life. He is, therefore, not discour- 
aged by the protracted struggle of the law of sin. That slow 
progress in overcoming the evil in the heart, which brings 
such pain and discouragement to the believer himself, 
does not move or disturb him. Calm and unmoved he 
keeps place in the very citadel of the soul, and, not dis- 
couraged by the perpetual turmoil and insurrection of sin, by 
the unholy thoughts, the turbulent passions, the ungodly im- 
pulses, which are forever warring against his holy control, 


THE SPECIAL GIFT OF THE Hoty Sptrir. 225 


he works even according to his own wise and loving will 
at his appointed task. Yet further: the Holy Spirit is 
not only under the bond of the covenant of grace to make 
good the promise to the faith of the believer himself, but 
he well knows how the honor of the whole Godhead is in- 
volved in the full, firm, and successful discharge of his func- 
tion as the sanctifier of the saints. All the persons of the 
Trinity are pledged to this work’ Jesus, the Son, by his very 
name is pledged to be a Saviour from sin. He is no Saviour 
at all unless he does save from sin. Salvation in sin is a 
contradiction in terms. To save from sin was the very end 
and purpose for which he came—for which he died. Tf this 
end is defeated, all his work comes to nothing. The eternal 
counsel of the Father was to do this very thing, and if it is 
not done, his counsel is brought to nought. His highest 
and most cherished plans, his greatest glory, would be de- 
molished. 

But further still: the hope of believers is encouraged, and 
their anxieties legitimately subdued, by the fact that the Holy 
Spirit 1s represented in the doctrine of the Scriptures as ani- 
mated, not merely by an intense fidelity to his trust, but by 
an infinite delight in his work. The love of the Spirit is em- 
phatically asserted, and what he loves he delights todo. He 
loves to help a soul oppressed with sin. He is prompt to 
answer every appeal. He rejoices to win battles against 
Satan. His title as the Comforter proves his joy in doing all 
his glorious work. Such are some of the leading features in 
the Scripture doctrine of the Spirit. 

Now, it is obvious that the antidote to the discouragement, 
anxieties, and fears of the believer, growing out of the con- 
sciousness of the strength and stubbornness, the incessant 
presence, and the perpetual activity, of his own inward sin, 
is here plainly revealed in this doctrine of the grace of the 
Holy Ghost. When, pained and terrified by the incessant 
and stubborn outgrowth of his remaining depravity, he dreads 


15 


226 GIrts TO BELIEVERS. 


the departure of the Holy Spirit, leaving him to himself, let 
him take hold on the truth taught him in this doctrine of the 
Spirit. The Spirit never leaves him. He may hide his pre- 
sence, under provocation, but never abandons his work. The 
Spirit never grows indifferent. The Spirit never loses pati- 
ence. The Spirit never forfeits his covenant fidelity, or his 
zeal for the honor of God. He never ceases to delight in his 
work. He is always the Paraclete of the saints, and always 
comes when called; no honest sigh for his presence, no 
earnest cry to him, is eyer unheeded. If such are the func- 
tions of the Holy Ghost in the economy of redemption, that 
provision which secures a special grant and special gifts of the 
Spirit to every believer is a blessing absolutely inestimable. 


CHARTER Lf. 


GIPT OF A: PHCULIAR KNOWLEHDGH OR INTUITION TO 
BELIEVERS. 


‘“That the God of our Lord Jesus Ohrist, the Father of glory, may give 
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”—Paui to the Ephesians. 


HE passage of which these words are a part settles the 

fact that there is a special gift of the Holy Spirit to 
believers subsequent to their faith and the initial processes 
of their salvation. The defects in the Christian experience, 
the anxieties, the weaknesses, the fluctuations of hope, the 
sins, and the trials of believers, illustrate strongly the need 
of this gift, and the value of it when given. To secure the 
benefits of the grant it must be known, suitably esteemed, 
and put to use. So long as Christians are either ignorant 
of it, or fail to value and turn it to account in their syste- 
matic experimental employment of it, it will not produce its 
effects, and the old chronic state of crippled hope and im- 
perfect comfort will prevail. This sort of imperfection is 
positively contrary to God’s explicit will; he commands his 
servants to “rejoice in the Lord always.” It is no compli- 
ment to the grace he has provided and revealed to their 
faith, that they should go all their lifetime subject to bond- 
age. He requires them to enter and “stand fast in the 
liberty with which Christ has made them free.” That lib- 
erty is something more than freedom from the yoke of that 
cumbersome and costly ceremonial ritual which Peter de- 
clared neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. It 
is freedom from the condemnation and the liabilities of 
sin; from its power and pollution in the soul; from the 
fear of death. From all these evils they are delivered by 

227 


928 Girts TO BELIEVERS. 


the redemption which is in Christ. Those, then, on whom 
that redemption has taken effect—which is only another de- 
scription of all who believe—are required to do justice to 
the grace which has wrought such inexpressible benefits for 
them, and to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ‘The 
joy of the Lord” is said to be “their strength”; and if the 
want of strength in his servants is an injury to his cause and 
a discount to his glory, then strength is their duty as well as 
their personal privilege; and if joy is their strength, it is as 
much their duty and privilege to be joyful as it is to be 
strong. Assuredly, if all Christians were as happy as it is 
their duty to be, there would be no resisting the spread of a 
faith so visibly rich in power and blessing. To secure this 
joy and energy, and to break down the anxieties and dis- 
couragements to which they are opposed, is the object of 
this special gift of the Holy Spirit, and the special gifts 
which he brings to believers. To aid us in turning this 
wonder of benignant grace to account, let us scrutinize the 
value of this great gift, and the gifts which follow and flow 
from it: 

1. The value of the gift is conspicuously displayed in the 
nature of the gift: it 7s the Holy Ghost himself. The dis- 
tinction is rooted, in the nature of the case, between the gift 
of the Spirit and the gifts which he bestows when given; we 
must, therefore, consider them separately and in succession. 
Obviously, the great Author of all the special gifts is himself 
the greatest of them all. It is the Holy Spirit, a person, not 
an influence, a being capable of sympathy, capable of ap- 
proach and appeal, capable of assuming the responsibilities 
of a covenant, and the execution of a task. It is very won- 
derful to observe how, in this whole matter of redemption, 
the infinite God puts himself forward as the only agent, as 
well as the final object, of that deliverance for lost men which 
he has undertaken. The original purpose was his; the exe- 
cution was his; the effectual application of it to individual 


GIFT OF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 229 


souls was his, and hisonly. Nothing entering into the effec- 
tive work to be done is delegated to any inferior being. 
_ Angels are employed, but only as ministering spirits; men 
are employed, but as mere instrumental and secondary 
agents; ordinances are employed, but their effectual influ- 
ence is due only to the concurrence of divine energy. The 
whole tenor of the gospel teaching is, that “salvation is of 
the Lord,” and all trust in any other person or thing is rig- 
orously inhibited. This grand conception of dealing only 
with God in all that concerns an effective hope in matters 
spiritual, is due not merely to the natural impossibility of 
salvation being achieved by any other means or power, but 
to a design to meet a particular fact in the condition of a 
sinning soul. It is designed to restore man to his natural 
relations to God, to train him from the start to replace the 
divine being in his proper relations to his creature. ‘Those 
relations were dislocated by the apostasy of mankind. Man 
crew to be without God in the world; he remembered God 
and was troubled; and as the result of his studied attempts 
to get rid of the oppressive conception, it resulted that 
God was not in all his thoughts. The very idea of a 
Deity became a nuisance to be abated. The consequence 
was the practical extinction of the concept; no attention 
was paid to the exiled King; no use was seen for him; 
no appeal was made to him, recognizing the original lov- 
ing and friendly relations between the parties. Now, the 
great gospel system of restoration begins its restorative 
processes at this point, and never ceases to work at the 
reconstruction of the direct relation between God and man. 
Hence, all the thoughts of the returning sinner are trained 
immediately upon God as the only Saviour and source of 
hope. All that enters into the matter of salvation is to be 
looked and sought for from him. Back of all human instru- 
mentalities, beyond all the ordinances, though appointed by 
divine authority, the eye is taught to look for God himself. 


230 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


So far as the efficient energy is concerned, God is always in 
the forefront, nay, above and apart from means. Means are 
appointed to serve inferior ends, and can never be safely 
abandoned, but salvation is of the Lord himself. He, and 
he alone, is the Saviour. What is to be done, he does; what 
is to be given, he gives, whether pardon, or life, or guidance, 
or comfort; all is to be sought from him. Most wonderful 
of all, he makes himself the great gift which he bestows on 
his returning rebel. Nothing less is deemed worthy of his 
divine dignity to bestow, or suitable to the grand nature and 
the ineffable necessities of his redeemed creature. He knows 
that nothing less than something infinite can satisfy a nature 
ever reaching beyond all present good, however good it may 
be; ever insatiable in the headlong stretch of its immortal 
aspirations. Made to be satisfied in God only, the very 
structure of an immortal, ever-progressive being determines 
the only satisfaction for it in the illiimitable resources of the 
Infinite. The gracious Lord also knows that in the awful 
stress and straitness into which sin has brought his unhappy 
creature, no power less than divine can save him. Therefore 
it is that in every phase and part of the great redemption 
God gives himself to the work. 

Hence, God the Son came into the world to pay down the 
needful ransom on the cross. Hence, God the Father gives 
himself as the Father and the everlasting, satisfying portion of 
his redeemed people. Hence, the Holy Ghost is given to 
encounter all the inward mischief which sin has wrought in 
the soul itself, to regenerate the unregenerate sinner and 
make him in this regard a child of God, and when so 
quickened into genuine spiritual life, to take up his abode in 
him, and by special gifts of himself and from himself, to con- 
duct the work he has begun until he triumphantly presents 
the rescued sinning soul, without spot or blemish or any such 
thing, in the presence of the Father’s glory. No human 
conception or words can begin to adequately express the 


GIFT OF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 231 


intrinsic worth of this gift of the Holy Spirit. Having given 
the Son to redeem the lost, and himself to be the Father and 
the satisfying portion of saved sinners, the rich Lord of the 
universe had only one more gift of equal value to bestow, and 
he gives this when he gives the Holy Ghost. Heaven's gor- 
geous treasure-house has nothing like it to give. The Spirit 
is a person, a living, intelligent, and powerful being, not a 
mere influence, however valuable, but a person exerting an 
influence, capable of action, varied according to the necessi- 
ties of the soul with which, and in which, he dwells, capa- 
ble of loving affections, able to receive appeals, able to hear 
and answer the calls made to him. His work is unceasing; 
it is not a brief but transcendent enterprise, like the Son’s in 
bearing the sins of the world in his own body on the tree, 
but the constant work of an indweller in the soul and in the 
church, ending only with the completed purification of the 
one, and the final triumph of the other. He is the Paraclete, 
which means, “the one called to our help,” always ready to 
aid, always on the watch, always effective in his interference. 
To one engaged in any enterprise of difficulty or danger, no- 
thing could be more of a comfort or encouragement than to 
have and to know that he has always an assistance ready 
and powerful which he can call to his side at any moment, 
and can rely upon as all-sufficient for every emergency. Such 
is the gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer—a person 
capable of all personal sensibilities and acts; a divine per- 
son infinite in loving-kindness, in wisdom, and in power. 
No adequate conception can be formed of its value. 

9. The value of the gift of the Holy Ghost is illustrated dy 
the manner in which he is given. The marvelous doctrine of 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is a plain assertion of the 
word of God. The Messiah thus asserts it: “And I will 
pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter,” 
(Paraclete), “that he may abide with you forever: even the 
Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it 


G39, GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him: for 
he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” According to 
these clear words he is a person, designated by the terms 
of personality, but a person who shall not only dwell 
with the disciple as a companion in his home, but as an oc- 
cupant dwelling in himself. To many this wonderful state- 
ment is as utter foolishness as it was to the Greeks. But if 
the omnipresence of God is true, as it must be of all neces- 
sary being, and assures us of his pervading all things in 
space as well as all space itself without taint or stain, there 
is nothing more credible than his special presence in a 
human soul as the preservative power which is to secure its 
integrity and its peace. On the contrary, the want of his 
presence would present the real difficulty. Pervading all 
things to preserve their being, he pervades the regenerate 
soul to preserve its regenerate life. The only difference is, 
not in the fact of his presence, but in the purpose to be ac- 
complished, and in the mode of its manifestation. Myste- 
rious as the fact of the indwelling of the Spirit may be, if 
the word of God assures it, it is nothing but repudiation of 
that record as the word of God to deny the fact or cavil at 
its credibility. In this wonderful doctrine the Christian sees 
the guarantee of his safety. If a strong man keeps his 
house, it cannot be plundered unless a stronger than he shall 
bind the guardian who keeps it. Who is stronger than God, 
the Holy Spirit? In every hour of bitter temptation and 
conscious personal weakness, the Christian may remember 
the indwelling of the Spirit, and take courage. All fear is 
legitimately and logically conquered when faith realizes who 
is on guard. Into every Christian soul he enters to abide, 
and when bulwarked by his infinite love, pity, patience, 
faithfulness, and power, every such soul is entitled to rejoice 
in hope. | 

3. The value of the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers is 
shown in his taking up his indwelling in the regenerate heart 


GIFT oF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 253 


under a positive covenant engagement to accomplish its com- 
plete deliverance from the power and stain of sin. He en- 
ters to make good the promise to faith, “He that believeth 
shall be saved”; ‘‘sin shall not have dominion over you.” 
There is no salvation except a salvation from sin. The ob- 
ject of the Spirit is identical with that desire which is the 
most constant and intense in the regenerate heart, deliver- 
ance from sin. Without this inward cleansing the whole 
work of redemption would be nullified. The pledge of the 
Spirit is to make it good. Solemn covenant engagements 
bind strongly on all good and honorable human minds; what 
can be conceived more powerful, or as affording a stronger 
ground of confidence and hope, than the covenant pledge of 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? 

4, The value of the gift of the Holy Spirit is illustrated 
by the objects for which he is given. In general terms, his de- 
sign is to subdue the sin in the soul—that energy of evil 
which is its shame, its peril, its disease, and its death—and 
to infuse holiness—that energy of goodness which is its glory, 
its safety, its health, and its life. He works on all powers 
and principles of the human spirit, on every energy of the 
intellect, and every affection of the heart. He seals, anoints, 
cuards, comforts, certifies, upholds, and edifies the favored 
soul into which he enters. But in the passage at the head 
of this chapter the apostle singles out one function of the 
Holy Spirit, and makes it the special object of his prayer for 
the Christians of Ephesus, and afterwards specifies three 
objects on which he desired the exertion of this function. 
As this special function and these objects of its exercise en- 
ter largely into the conquest of the anxieties and imperfec- 
tions of Christian experience, the particular consideration of 
them will advance the object which we have in view. 

The special function of the Holy Spirit alluded to is his 
illuminating influence on the understanding. By this gift the 
believer is enabled to comprehend more and more fully the 


oon GIFTs To BELIEVERS. 


great truths of the gospel. He is called “the Spirit of wis- 
dom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” The personal 
pronoun points to the person of the sacred Trinity just 
mentioned before, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ.” ‘This fact presents us with the first noticeable point 
in the declaration made, and that is, that it is the knowledge 
of the Father, as distinguished from the knowledge of the 
Son, which the apostle prays that the Ephesians might re- 
ceive. The knowledge of the Son is all-important, and is 
equally to be sought at the hands of the Spirit; it is ex- 
pressly stated, ‘He will take of the things of Christ and will 
show them unto us.” But in this prayer of Paul, it is the 
knowledge of the Father and of his relations to the saints 
which is sought as an object of the guidance of the Holy 
Ghost. 

The second noticeable point is the kind of knowledge of 
the Father which is sought for the Ephesian saints. It is 
not simply the information concerning the Father given in 
the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Ghost. The church at 
Ephesus already had that knowldege, if not yet in the 
written New Testament complete, yet certainly in the in- 
structions of the apostles. Paul’s prayer was not that they 
might have the word of God. Neither was he praying that 
they might be enspzred in the sense in which he was inspired; 
it was a knowledge to be given to them simply as saints, as 
those who had believed, and in whose heart the love of the 
brethren demonstrated a regeneration already accomplished. 
This knowledge, then, was distinct and different, both from 
the knowledge given in the Scriptures and from the inspira- 
tion of the apostles. It is said in one place in the sacred 
record, that the natural man perceiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned. This spiritual apprehension is repudi- 
ated by many as a mystery incomprehensible and incredible, 
a mere dream of fanaticism unworthy of rational aeceptance. 


GFT oF A PEcULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 235 


But so far from this being true it is only an example in the 
spiritual sphere of what is true in every sphere of nature, 
and in every line of human employment. There are two 
kinds of knowledge which every human understanding may 
have of things. There are two kinds of discernment, one 
depending merely on the untrained energies of the natural 
organs of perception, the other, on a previous training and 
discipline of faculty, and the mental quality and capacity 
conveyed by that training. Of this latter class take an in- 
stance in the sphere of music: two persons may hear with 
equal chances a piece executed by a great master; both may 
discern and enjoy the general impression of the melody, but 
only one of them has the musical training which will enable 
the discernment of the actual skill and genius involved in 
the performance; for these can be only musically discerned. 
There is a quality in the mind of the one which is not in the 
other. Two men may investigate a line of policy adopted 
by a civil legislature; one, a merchant or manufacturer, may 
see the effects on the productions and trade of the country, 
for they discern all things commercially; the other, a states- 
man of deeper and broader views, may see in addition to its 
effects on trade and production its effects on the well-being 
of the consuming classes, on their moral character, on their 
personal happiness, and on their patriotic affections. These 
things are only discernible through the high and just civil 
wisdom of a true statesman ; they are politically discerned. 
It is notorious in human experience that the view of men 
and things is governed by the feelings of the heart towards 
them—love producing one judgment and dislike another. 

Of the first class of instances, the two radically different 
kinds of knowledge of the same identical thing, the enumera- 
tion could be easily extended to the degree of tediousness. 
We do assuredly know that the reason why one tree bears 
peaches, and another apples is in the nature of the trees, 
but what that nature in either of them is, or what is the 


236 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


difference in that nature, no one can tell. But suppose one 
could penetrate that secret, and clearly comprehend the 
exact nature of the trees, he would only know what all knew 
before, that the nature of the trees was different. He would 
know the same thing, but his knowledge would be different 
from the, knowledge of other men. A man may know that 
an orange is a delightful fruit before he tastes it; but when 
he tastes it he knows the very same fact, but his knowledge 
would be very different. The knowledge that fire will burn 
may be certain without touching it, but the same fact may be 
known, but with a kind of knowledge very different, by touch- 
ing it. Is it needful to multiply instances? In the line of 
these analogies why should any one doubt that there should 
be an intellectual knowledge of religious truth, and a different 
kind of spiritual knowledge of the very same truth, the one 
knowledge making him acquainted with the fact that there 
is such truth, and with its intellectual limitations and rela- 
tions; the other, with its deep and true significance—its 
moral weight—its profound appeal to the whole affections of 
the soul. It is absolutely certain as a matter of fact in a. 
human experience, without assignable bounds to its extent, 
that there is such a difference in the apprehension of the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus in all the distinct truths embraced 
in the system. One man may know and honestly believe 
the fact that God so loved the world as to send his Son to 
redeem it, and that now salvation is offered to all men 
through him, yet he sees nothing in these ideas to move 
his feelings or to induce him to action. His knowledge of 
the glad tidings of great joy brings no joy to him; he remains. 
unmoved and uncheered by it. His knowledge does not 
place before his mind the real nature and significance of the 
grand ideas he so coolly contemplates. He has had no ade- 
quate previous sense of his own need of the remedies of infinite 
grace, and there is no quality conferred by this previous 
discipline on his understanding to enable him to appreciate 


GIFT OF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 237 


them. But another man, who apprehends his personal need 
of an effectual relief, may so see into the real nature and 
significance of the gospel remedies that he catches the joy 
that is in them; he realizes that his sin may be forgiven 
him; his knowledge now acquaints him with the power that 
is in these glorious conceptions. It is this kind of knowledge 
which Paul prays may be given by the spirit of wisdom and 
revelation to the Ephesian Christians; not the inspiration of 
an apostle to give a fresh measure of truth; not the truth 
already given in the Scriptures; but a true intuition of the 
truth already given. It was a knowledge through feeling, 
and producing higher measures of it. 

Yet a further discrimination must be made. These saints 
at Ephesus already had a degree of this kind of knowledge; 
they had been led by it to the faith which had saved them; 
it had developed in them a distinctive mark of the re- 
generate heart—the love of the brethren. But Paul knew 
that further measures of the grace which had first led them 
to taste the sweetness and power of the gospel was neces- 
sary to lead them through the whole course of their saintly 
career into larger and ever-progressive realizations of this 
rich experience of gospel grace. He knew the trials before 
them; he knew the anxieties and sorrows they had to encoun- 
ter, and the constant consequent need of the illumination which 
first led them to peace. He knew, too, there was a vast scale 
of degrees and possible progress in that glorious species of 
knowledge of which they had already partaken in a certain 
precious measure. They might not know, or at least effec- 
tively apprehend, that the covenant provided a gift of the Holy 
Spirit for believers, to bestow rich degrees of this same kind 
of knowledge, leading them steadily into deeper and higher 
views of the same old glorious truths. He reveals and em- 
phasizes this wonderful truth and prays that the saints of 
Ephesus may receive this gift, and illustrates its use in deal- 
ing with all gospel truth by seeking its application to three 


238 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


truths which he specifies as entering far into the comfort of 
all believers. It is fit for us in these modern days of the 
kingdom to accept decisively the consolatory fact involved in 
this history. If this precious gift was practicable for the 
Ephesian Christians, it is practicable for all believers, it is 
available for us. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to 
every one who believes that he may profit withal. To take 
of the things of Christ and show them unto us, to open our 
understandings that we may truly understand the Scriptures, 
to enable us to spiritually discern the things which can only 
be spiritually discerned is the very function of the Spirit to 
which Paul refers as the spirit of wisdom and revelation in 
the knowledge of God given to believers. Not only is there 
no presumption in all saints hoping, and like Paul praying, 
for this gift for ourselves and others, but there will be a 
grave delinquency in not doing it. 

It may be well to recur to the first of the two points which 
are conspicuous in the passage heading this chapter, for some 
explanation of its meaning. Why does Paul lay emphasis on 
the knowledge of the Father as distinguished from the know- 
ledge of the Son, and especially desire it for the Christians 
of Ephesus? To the natural apprehensions of the human 
heart God appears only as the Creator, the sovereign Lord, 
Lawgiver, and Judge of all the earth. The consciousness of 
sin enforces these overawing conceptions. Consequently he 
only appears in the form and attitudes of one to be feared to 
the degree of dread. There is a solid foundation for these 
views; they are confirmed by the Scriptures. Out of Christ 
he is unequivocally said to be a consuming fire. He is angry 
with the wicked every day. He loves his law, because it is 
the eternal dictate of all rightness; and his law is univers- 
ally violated. He hates evil, and evil is eagerly pursued by 
the perverted human heart as the choice road to enjoyment. 
He loves holiness and all righteousness, and both are repu- 
diated in the practices of the natural man. He has made no 


GIFT oF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 239 


secret of his requirements; he has revealed his law in con- 
science and in his word; he has thoroughly engaged his au- 
thority to restrain, and his veracity to punish, sin: but all in 
vain: his authority is repudiated, his menaces are despised. 
His necessary attitude under such a state of things, unquali- 
fied by any provisions of grace, must be that of righteous 
anger, and resolution to punish. It is, in fact, precisely the 
very attitude ascribed to him by the conscious guilt and fears 
of a conscious transgressor. To know God in these unquali- 
fied natural relations, as determined by the sin of the crea- 
ture, is to have a knowledge which ean only carry terror and 
despair. Any knowledge of him. which is attractive must 
proceed on an entire change in these threatening relations. 
It is the very essence of the gladness of the gospel tidings 
that this change has been effected. It was the very change 
wrought by the redemption work of the Son. He undertook 
to pay the claims of the law and justice of the Father, repre-. 
senting in that wonderful covenant the dignity of the whole 
Godhead. He undertook to remove every obstacle out of 
the way to the free exercise of the Father’s grace. Conceiv- 
ing this done, obviously the whole state of the case as be- 
tween the sinner and the insulted majesty of the divine gov- 
ernment is altered. Conceiving a real redemption accom- 
plished, the necessary result would be, frst, that all penalties 
would be remitted, and all danger removed; and second, that 
all the favor needful to secure the purchased blessings and 
to insure the welfare of the redeemed would be made abso- 
lutely certain. The effects of transgression would be re- 
moved, some, instantly; all, in the progress and issue of 
events. That effect of sin which shad procured the just 
displeasure of Almighty God, and placed him in the attitude 
of a Judge certain to condemn, is among those which are 
instantly qualified. The other effect, which had been to 
alienate the feelings of the offending creature, and to fill the 
heart with apprehension and terror, is also instantly removed, 


240 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


In the same class of speedy and accomplished effects are 
many which affect the relations and feelings of God as well 
as the redeemed creature. God is reconciled to man, as well 
as man to God. The relation of a Judge is changed to the 
relation of a Father. Righteous anger gives place to infinite 
kindness. The resolve to punish gives way to the resolve to 
save. The obligation to inflict evil for evil gives way to the 
obligation to do justice to the Redeemer by showing favor to 
the ungodly for whom he has intervened. The whole atti- 
tude of God in the person of the Father has been so com- 
pletely and so benignantly altered, that to know him in these 
new relations has become a source of boundless peace and 
joy. It is not at all difficult now to understand why Paul 
desired the believers at Ephesus to know with an intense 
realizing discernment the God and Father of their Saviour 
Christ. For he was now their Father also. He had ceased 
to be their angry law-giver; he had been reconciled to them. 
He was no longer their Judge; he had committed all judg- 
ment to the Son—their own loved Saviour—their own elder 
brother. They are his Son’s by adoption, as well as by re- 
generating grace. Instead of anger in his holy heart towards 
them, he is giving way to the impulses of his own infinite 
loving nature—moving like the great tides of the sea. This 
mighty change in the relations of God the Father rests on a 
basis which secures all its blessed effects unalterable forever ; 
it is wholly grounded on the accomplished work of the Son 
of God. If it rested on human will or works it would be 
constantly liable to be overthrown; the relations of God 
would fluctuate between their old and their new character; 
and no comfortable assurance could be connected with them. 
Where there is no certainty in the future, hope is annihi- 
lated; for rational hope is the expectation of a future good 
surely given but not yet possessed. All else is vague pre- 
sumption or expectation without a warrant. 

We have seen* that in the distribution of the work of sal- 


* Page 230 


tie pelt: 


GIFT oF A PECULIAR KNOWLEDGE, ETC. 241 


vation among the persons of the Trinity, the Father gives 
himself not only to be the Father, but the satisfying portion 
of the soul. Nothing else can satisfy it. Heaven as a mere 
locality, glorious in its gold and pearl and matchless splendor, 
can never do it, although the well-being of man is seriously 
conditioned on his local circumstances. The conversation 
and society of angels, and the spirits of the just made per- 
fect, will be ennobling and delightful, but they cannot satisfy 
a soul, although the satisfaction of a human heart is largely 
dependent on his companionships. The human spirit was 
made to find rest in God; it cannot find it in anything else. 
It crowns the wonderful benignity of the grace revealed to us, 
and completes the perfection of the basis for the hope and 
comfort of the believer, to be assured that God the Father, in 
all the infinite resources of his infinite being and excellence, 
is revealed and assured as the ultimate portion and satisfac- 
tion of every redeemed soul. These two grand endowments, 
the Fatherhood and apportionment of God, constituted the 
chief reasons why Paul wanted the saints at Ephesus to be- 
- come acquainted with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ To know him as such, to know him in all the rela- 
tions in which the redemption of Christ has placed him, ig 
everlasting life; for this is eternal life, to know him and Jesus 
Christ whom he has sent. This true realizing knowledge of 
God is not merely to know, but to love him with a supreme 
affection, to obey him. with loving regard to all his command- 
ments, and to rejoice in him always. Thus to know the 
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is to rise superior 
to all fear and sorrow at all times, for it discloses the Chris- 
tian basis for the hope which is full of immortality. 


16 


GH ALP hy Ee 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE OF THREE PARTICULAR TRUTHS 
TO BELIEVERS. 


‘“That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches 
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding 
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of 
his mighty power.”—Paul to-the Hphesians. 


HE apostle specifies three distinct forms of truth on 
which he prayed that that gift of the Holy Spirit, that 
realizing and intimate knowledge, might be employed, about 
which we spoke in the preceding chapter. He prays that 
the Christians of Ephesus might know, as a man knows the 
sweetness of a fruit when he actually tastes it—jirst, the real 
nature of the hope which sprang out of their calling; 
second, the glorious riches of God’s inheritance in them; and 
third, the greatness of that divine power which stood guard — 
over their security. The two last of this triplicate of truths 
bear a logical relation to the first, and all three are thus | 
bound up together. The inheritance of God in his saints, 
and the might of his power, are the guarantees of the hope of 
their calling. Their calling is his act; the ownership of 
them is in him; and the power is his own which secures his 
possession. Let us endeavor to get fair hold, of each of 
these truths into which the gift of the Spirit may guide us. 
1. What is the hope of the calling which God claims as 
his own? 'The first thing to be settled is, the nature of this 
calling. It is evidently a calling which has an effectual and 
essential connection with the hope of believers, with the in- 
heritance of God in them, and with the power which secures 
the safety of those who are his property. It is something 
different from that general invitation and call to repentance 
242 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. 2438 


and faith which is made indiscriminately to all persons to 
whom the proclamation can be made. That call often fails 
in effect. But this is a calling altogether distinct from that 
ineffectual invitation ; it is an effectual and saving call. Such 
a call is plainly asserted in such words as these: “ Not many 
wise men, not many mighty, not many noble are called”; 
and “whom he called, them he also justified.” All the 
mighty and noble are called in the universal invitation; not 
many of them are called with the other species of calling. 
All who are called by the one are justified; none who are 
only called with the other are justified. The one call only 
makes known the will of God; the calling which he specially 
claims as Ais secures obedience to it. The distinction, though 
sometimes confounded, is radical and all-important. 

The hope of this calling is the hope produced and assured 
by this calling. This hope may be considered under two 
aspects: it may be considered with reference to its objects, 
the things which are hoped for; or with reference to the 
nature, the period, and the effects of the hope itself. It is 
evident, however, that the latter aspect of it is the one which 
was in the mind of the apostle at this time; for it is viewed 
in its immediate connection with the calling in which it origi- 
nates, and as an immediate outgrowth of it. The objects of 
this hope are, for the most part at least, distant, unseen, 
glorious beyond measure, but not realized on the instant; all 
the objects of true hope are in some part of the future. It 
is certainly, then, the nature and immediate effects of hope 
which are brought up for consideration in connection with 
that calling and its legal consequences, which takes imme- 
diate effect. It follows, then, that there is in this hope a 
present and immediately available antidote to the present 
cares and anxieties of believers. As such it is repeatedly 
explained and recommended in the Scriptures; and as such 
we shall, seek to develop it now, in the eager desire to see 
the life of at least some of God’s children in these days of 


244 GIFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


trial brightened with more comfort, and their strength in- 
creased by more joy in the Lord. 

One noticeable thing in the teaching of the Scriptures 
about Christian hope is that it is positively required of the 
people of God. “Let Israel hope in the Lord.” “ Why art 
thou cast down, O my soul; and why art thou disquieted in 
me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him for the 
help of his countenance.” These are specimens of the Old 
Testament requirements. Paul gives an instance of the requt- 
sitions of the New Testament, when he says, ‘“‘ we desire that 
every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full as- 
surance of hope unto the end.” If the Lord has bound him- 
self by two immutable things—his promise and his oath to 
perform it—in which it was impossible for him to lie, in 
order that those might have strong consolation who have fled 
for refuge to the hope set before them, it certainly cannot be a 
matter of indifference to him whether that consolation is 
realized or not in the actual experience of his servants. 
They are commanded to “rejoice in the Lord always.” It is 
in fact a gross injustice to the salvation of God to hold it as 
practically incompetent to cheer and comfort the heart in 
which his grace is reigning. Hope is therefore required of 
every one of them. 

Another peculiarity of Christian hope is that it 2s designed 
to be exercised, and therefore it is practically available now, 
in the present life of the believer. It is intended to dis- 
tribute its comforting influences where they are most needed. 
To remit its exercise and the strength and comfort which it 
brings to the future life, is really to destroy it altogether as 
hope; for hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man 
seeth, why doth he yet hope for it? In the future, the 
objects of hope are already in possession, and the functions 
of hope are so far forth brought to an end. Hope is the 
effect of things which are surely given, but not yet obtained, 
and is intended for the present comfort of the future pos- 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. 2.45 


sessor. If there is no certainty in the future possession—no 
assurance in the gift given—no reliability in the promise and 
the maker of the promise, no real hope can exist; nothing 
but vague and uncertain expectation can emerge. But if 
the grant and title are sure, hope is warranted and requirable, 
and when exercised will throw its comforts strongly all along 
the progress from the pledge to the possession. Every 
Christian therefore is required to hope and rejoice always; 
it is not the choice privilege of a few, but the duty and privi- 
lege of all believers. A Christian without hope, then, is not 
only living below his privilege, but in violation of his duty; 
and on both of these accounts is grieving the great loving 
heart of his God and Saviour. 

Another point about this hope of God’s calling refers to 
the basis on which it rests, not its primary basis, which is the 
work of the Redeemer, but the secondary basis, which con- 
nects it with the jirst. This secondary or instrumental foun- 
dation of hope is two-fold—faith and experience. Tf one 
gives a promise of some future gift to another, faith in that 
promise, and in him who makes it, will be instantly followed 
by the hope of obtaining what is promised. If the faith is 
strong, the hope will be strong; if the faith is weak, the hope 
will be weak; if the faith vacillates between strength and 
weakness, the hope will vacillate. /a7th, therefore, is clearly, 
in part at least, the foundation and instrumental cause of 
hope. But now, suppose the promise is actually fulfilled in 
part, and a part is still left to be fulfilled, the partial fulfil- 
ment will create an additional confidence and hope of receiv- 
ing the remainder. In this case experience worketh hope; it 
thus becomes a part of the basis of hope by strengthening 
faith, by adding the assurance of fact to the assurance of 
truth in the promise and the promiser. It vindicates and 
strengthens faith by the fulfilment of promise, and so breeds 
hope. As faith is the natural and obligatory demand of all 
truth and of all trustworthy invitations to confidence, hope is 


246 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


equally demanded, because it is the natural and logical con- 
sequent of the faith which is rightfully required. 

In addition to these secondary foundations of hope, it rests 
on a great primary basis, which gives all its force to the se- 
condary bases of faith and experience. If faith has no solid 
cround to rest upon, it is incapable of creating confidence, 
and so incapable of producing hope. If the solid ground 
exists, and there is no faith in it, it will produce no hope. 
On the contrary, if there is no solid basis, the faith in it will 
be spurioys, and the hope-produced by it will be illusive. The 
two must co-exist, the solid ground and the real faith in it, 
in order to secure a reliable hope. If one make a promise 
of a future gift to another, faith in the promise will yield 
hope, but only on the condition, not only that the maker of 
the promise is reliable in his integrity, but is unquestionably 
able to do as he has promised. The basis of hope, then, is 
not merely faith as the secondary ground of it, but the integ- 
rity, willingness, and ability of the promiser as the original 
basis of the faith which produces hope. This primary basis 
is that which justifies faith, and thus vindicates the hope it 
produces. The grand primary foundation of Christian hope, 
then, is the whole official work of Christ as the Redeemer of 
lost men, and the pledge of the divine veracity that it not 
only is effective to save, but that whosoever accepts and 
relies upon it, shall be saved. To this great ground of con- 
fidence and hope it is that faith looks; it is this which creates 
confidence; it is this which originates experience. | It is this 
to which the whole attention of a soul seeking safety and 
peace should be dirested. To turn the thoughts within to 
see if there is faith in the heart, to ransack consciousness and 
memory to discover an experience which may warrant hope, 
is to divert attention from the primary basis that grounds 
both faith and hope, to the secondary basis which merely me- 
diates and conveys the virtue of the only real ground of 
both. Such an investigation begins its search at an interme- 


> 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE To BELIEVERS. Af 


diate point, and to withdraw the attention from what lies back 
of faith, and warrants and mediately produces it. In this 
overlooked ground of faith and hope the work and personal 
power of the Saviour himself are either of them to be found. 

Just here we discover the great practical mistake of be- 
lievers which produces that chronic state of uneasiness and 
anxiety which is the shame and the peril of the heirs of 
grace. They look only to their faith and experience for 
comfort; the aim of their self-examination is solely to certify 
faith and experience, and until satisfied with these they 
refuse to be comforted, or to indulge any hope. The desire 
to certify faith and hope is altogether right; self-examination 
is an undoubted duty. But the exception lies against the 
mode in which the scrutiny is made. ‘To know that we con- 
fide in a thing, the natural order of thought which ough‘ to 
regulate the inquiry is, to fix attention on the thing first, and 
then to look at the mental exercises about it. A traveler on 
a public highway comes to a bridge; he does not pause at 
the bridge-head and turn his thoughts inward on his own 
mind to study whether he has confidence in the bridge; he 
looks outward to the bridge itself; he knows that confidence 
in the bridge is to be bred by the bridge itself. As he in- 
spects the bridge and finds it strongly built, his faith in the 
structure comes without notice into his feelings. Common 
sense will tell every man that such is the method by which 
confidence of safe advance on his journey is to be elicited, 
and not by a curious inward search of his own mind to see 
if he has faith in the bridge. No wonder a similar method 
of self-examination results in disappointment to the believer. 
No wonder hope eludes their search; for they ignore the 
very thing which breeds faith and hope, and yet expect both 
apart from the ground on which they grow. The procedure 
is as unequivocally foolish as for a man to look for a crop 
without looking for it on the soil on which it grows. It 1s as 
silly as to look for intellectual results apart from any intelli- 


248 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


gence, or for sensations of health apart from a sound condi- 
tion of the bodily organs. et us learn this lesson of Chris- 
tian faith and hope, and look for them in the order in which 
grace has ordained them to come. We are saved by faith in 
the Son of God, and not by faith in our faith. Let us under- 
stand that the faith and the experience of grace we so eagerly 
seek to certify are to be found not in themselves or in any 
isolated position in our minds, but in connection with that 
great truth which is the primary basis of faith, experience, and 
the hope they yield—that Jesus is the Son of God, mighty to 
save. Let us correct this blunder in our Christian life and 
accept with a clear apprehension the great gospel doctrine 
that faith comes by hearing, and thus knowing, the truth as it 
is in Jesus. Faith is all-important, but only because it 
brings to Christ, in whom alone the power to save is found. 
There is no scriptural warrant for putting faith in the place 
of that redemption and that Redeemer in whom we are re- 
quired to trust. Our faith at its best is too feeble, too fluc- 
tuating, too easily shaken, to form the primary basis of a 
stable and robust hope. It is indispensable to all rational 
hope, and eminently to a hope full of assurance—at once 
staunch and full of comfort—that it be founded on something 
more effective and more durable than any human faith, no 
matter how true and noble it may be. 

Another, and a better, ground of both faith and hope, is 
furnished in the gospel of the grace of God. It is the fin- 
ished work of the Saviour himself. It needs no addition to 
complete its virtue; it is already complete. . It meets every 
conceivable or possible emergency in the condition of a sin- 
ner, past, present, or to come. That extinction of hope that 
follows sin in the believer is a gross discount of the power of 
the atoning blood. If every sin of the believer is properly 
followed by the extinction of hope, no hope is possible to 
him; for he is continually coming short in his obedience. 
Only presumptuous sinning is entitled to overcloud his hope, 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. 249 


and that no longer than repentance won by a fresh resort to 
the cleansing blood is exercised. The true attitude of the 
Christian when he sins is to go instantly to the throne of 
grace with a prompt confession of his sin, and an instant 
and fresh appeal to the power of the atonement and the 
grace of the great High Priest. Who can estimate ade- 
quately the power of that remedy which we are assured takes 
away all sm? Who can guage the power of divine blood? 
Who can exhaust the reach of a righteousness which God 
has wrought out? The whole salvation is the salvation of 
God. The torment of sin in the conscience is that God 
is rightfully offended; but if God himself is revealed as 
the deliverer from sin, who is entitled to gainsay it, or refuse 
to apply to him in his character as a Saviour? If God 
be for us, who can be against us? If we are commanded 
to hope in God as a Saviour from sin, where is the warrant 
for losing hope just because we have sinned? It is said 
that we encourage sin by this freedom of grace in forgive- 
ness. Cannot God’s own deliverance from sin be relied 
upon, not only to secure pardon but to secure repentance? 
Cannot he freely forgive, and yet govern; pardon, and yet 
purify; relax penalty, and yet secure obedience? All that 
is provided for in the covenant of grace. All who believe 
are kept by the power of God through faith unto eternal 
life. The integrity of the weakest is secured; for it is ex- 
plicitly declared that God is able to make him stand. As 
already said, every emergency is provided for in a way to war- 
rant the positive pledge, he that believeth shall be saved. 

As the whole length and breadth and depth and height 
of the Christian ground of hope is more perfectly appre- 
hended, the more fully is it seen to warrant a hope that is 
unspeakable and full of glory. Is it not a shame to mistrust 
in any direction a salvation by God himself? The blood of 
Christ secures pardon for all sin; his indwelling Spirit se- 
cures deliverance from its dominion; his righteousness, an 


250 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


assured title to eternal life. No greatness of human guilt can 
overcome the power of the atonement; no strength of per- 
sonal wickedness can defy the control of his life-giving 
power. All the provisions needful to a full deliverance from 
sin are embraced in the covenant executed by the Son, and 
have been ratified by the veracity of the Father. They are 
guarded by his power; they are supported by his whole cir- 
cle of moral attributes; they are executed by his Spirit; they 
are bound up with his glory. They are as reliable as his 
throne. They are guaranteed by his very life, for he Says, 
“Because I live, ye shall live also.” He won the power to 
save by the sacrifice of his life once; he has pawned it a 
second time to insure its application to every believing soul. 
It is impossible to give an exhaustive statement of the guar- 
antees of the great Christian ground of hope. The infinite 
love of the Father, the dying love of the Son, the indwelling 
love of the Spirit, and the infinite power of the Triune God, 
ali enter into them. If any basis for hope, a hope full of 
immortality, can be conceived by any stretch of human 
thought, it is overpassed by the actual securities of the gOs- 
pel covenant. With such a basis for hope there is no excuse 
for any sinning soul to go burdened with fear,—no sinner to 
remain in his sin,—no believer to live without rejoicing in 
the Lord always. 

The last characteristic of the hope of God’s calling which 
we cite is its capacity for coéxisting with all the changes in 
the Christian career. With whatever change of circumstance, 
with whatever trial, with whatever condition of life, with 
whatever form of death, this hope may exist. Every believer 
may rejoice in the Lord always. It is not necessary that he 
should escape trouble in any form; he may rejoice in spite 
of all. Age may not yield its infirmities; bereavement may 
not receive back its dead; poverty may not relax its se- 
verities; death may refuse to turn back the head of his 
pale horse, or to blunt the point of his fatal dart: yet the 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. 251 


hope of the calling of God may coéxist with all, and triumph 
over all. It can cheer the common roadway of ordinary life, 
_ animate the labors of men, sweeten the charms of domestic 
life, color the beauty of nature with new delight, and over 
all the ills that flesh is heir to can exert a subduing influence. 
Its practical value is inestimable. Such is the hope of God’s 
calling. 

2. The second of these truths on which Paul desired the 
improved spiritual discernment of the Ephesian Christians 
should be exerted, is the inheritance of God in the saints. 
This truth and the one associated with it are cited from 
their bearing on the hope of the calling of God. Both logi- 
cally bear on it and confirm it. 

It is to be noted that this inheritance is not the inheritance 
of the saints in God, but his inheritance in the saints. They 
also do have an inheritance in God, for they are joint heirs 
with Christ in an inheritance which is described in noble 
words as incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. 
This inheritance is sometimes confounded with the one here 
mentioned; but this is the inheritance of God in the saints. 
The terms used in description of this inheritance are cumu- 
lative and very powerful in expression; it is called “the 
riches of the glory of his inheritance,” that is, the glorious 
riches or wealth of this inheritance, a form of expression 
which carries, with all the power of the rich Greek tongue, 
the idea of the infinite worth of God’s inheritance in the 
saints. The expression itself, inheritance of God, is very 
peculiar. An inheritance isa possession not originally one’s 
own, derived to him by the death of another. The singu- 
larity of God’s inheriting a possession is grounded on the 
fact that, as the creator of all things, he had an original pro- 
prietary right in all things. His inheriting anything implies 
a change in his original relations to it. Such, in point of 
fact, was the state of the case with his creature man. Man 
as his creature, was his by absolute right; but man had re- 


252 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


belled, renounced his claims, thrown off his authority and 
yielded himself to another master. The effect of this was 
that man had become lost to God. The penal claims of vio- - 
lated law had taken possession of him, and while the right 
of God in his creature had not been abolished, the claims of 
justice had rendered it no longer possible for God to show 
him favor, apart from the consideration of an adequate re- 
demption from the demands of his insulted government. If 
such a policy was practicable and permissible, then his right 
to bless his lost creature and regain his lost property in him 
was possible. It is the very essence of the gospel that the 
Son of God did undertake this wonderful enterprise of re- 
deeming the lost human race, and by actually accomplishing 
it, restored the practical ownership of the Father in his lost 
creature. Once lost, but now redeemed by the Son, the 
restored right of the Father possesses that distinctive feature 
of an inheritance which consists in something not one’s own, 
derived and bestowed by another. Inasmuch as the Son of 
God had to accomplish the redemption by the sacrifice of 
his life, the other element of an inheritance, derivation 
through death, appears in God’s inheritance in the saints, 
and his restored right becomes an inheritance in the strictest 
sense of the term. 

The value, the peculiar and surprising value, which this 
inherited possession has in the eyes of the Father is strik- 
ingly presented in the strong cumulative terms in which it is 
described. It is “a glory” of an inheritance. It is a veri- 
table wealth of glory as an inheritance. The language carries 
the notion of estimated worth to its highest expression; it 
describes the most valued of all his possessions. God is 
rich; he owns all things; the wide universe is all his own. 
The stars and suns, all the riches of inventive wisdom and 
power infinite in degree, are his; the splendor of heaven and 
the rainbow-circled throne are his; the glorious angels, with 
their princely dominions and personal gifts, are all his; but 


Gurr or KNowWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. AGES 


the real wealth of the glory of his vast possession is this in- 
heritance obtained by the unparalleled work and out-poured 
blood of his Son. This is the great reason why the posses- 
sion is so precious: it was bought for him by the death of 
his only-begotten and well-beloved Son. The saints are 
identified with this infinitely beloved being; they are his 
friends; they are Azs brethren; they are Azs loved ones; they 
are the purchase of Ads priceless blood, the acquisition of Azs 
mighty and victorious struggle with the awful conditions of 
human redemption. That contention is the wonder of the 
universe, the unequaled and splendid mystery of all the 
counsels of God. Is it wonderful that God should value an 
acquisition obtained by such mysterious humiliation, agony, 
and death on the part of his own Son? A band of ma- 
rauders swoop down on the flocks and herds of a great 
pastoral chief; his gallant son pursues the robbers, and. by 
wonderful displays of valor and conduct rescues the pro- 
perty and restores it to his father; and as the restored flock 
is driven back on the paternal meadows, the heroic youth is 
borne back to his father’s house pale with many a gaping 
wound. Is it at all wonderful that the father should seta 
higher value on the rescued herd than ever before? So with 
the inheritance of God in his saints; there is a blood-mark 
on every one of them; that mark is the blood of his Son, 
and wherever he sees it he counts it richer than all the 
jewels of his crown. The parallel only conveys a faint 
shadow of the real case; for the inheritance of God was won 
by a far more desperate adventure than a combat with rob- 
bers of the desert, and by a far more trying sacrifice of his 
glorious Son. All of God’s other works were accomplished 
by the word of his power. A long preparation, amazing 
transformations, years of effort, and awful agonies of strained 
almightiness were necessary to accomplish this. No wonder 
he values its results. 

Another reason of the extraordinary value placed on the 


254 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


inheritance of God is, the relation it sustains to his Son’s 
glory. That glory is indissolubly bound up with these 
saints; if they are not saved, all his wonderful redemptive 
work is an absolute failure. What the Almighty wills, sim- 
ply resolves to accomplish, will be accomplished. Who can 
stay his hand? What he executes by any formal and delib- 
erate preparation to accomplish, gives to us a higher impres- 
sion of the certainty of its production. But what had to be 
done by such preliminary conditions as those involved in the 
redemption of sinners: the descent of the eternal Son from 
his throne; the assumption of human nature; the humilia- 
tion; the want; the suffering; the implacable hostility; the 
shame; the scourging; the spitting; the agony of crucifixion ; 
the death—all these give us an assurance, which beggars all 
human or creature conception, that what all this was done 
for will surely be accomplished. Failure after all this is in- 
conceivable. But if it could happen it would extinguish the 
glory of the beloved Son; it would nullify his heroic en- 
deavor ; it would render his infinite zeal of love abortive; it 
would extinguish the awful virtue of his blood, and turn the 
highest counsels of the only wise and omnipotent God into 
foolishness. If the hope of the believer in Jesus is so bound 
up with the glory of the Son, no higher guarantee of the as- 
surance of that hope could possibly be given. The actual 
measure of the value of God’s inheritance in the saints is the 
length and breadth and depth and heighth of the glory of 
the eternal Son and the esteem which the eternal Father 
feels for it. 

The value of the saints in the Father’s eyes is also en- 
hanced by their relation to the glory of the Holy Ghost. He 
undertakes to deliver them from the power and the inward 
stain of their sin. He gives them the germ of the eternal 
life in the beginning; he takes up his abode in them for a 
period avowedly perpetual; he guides the whole process of 
their purification; he guards their integrity. If all this 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. 255 


should be baffled ana defeated, the glory of the Spirit would 
be extinguished. The glory of the Father would be equally 
shattered. The whole scheme of redemption was his; its 
execution involved to him the cost of his Son’s humiliation, 
and the contact of his Spirit for ages with the pollutions of 
the hearts he purifies. Besides these awful considerations, 
his character is illustrated in this wonderful enterprise as it is 
in no other work of his hands. In every other work he has 
‘done, his attributes of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, and 
truth are displayed in their normal forms and along the 
natural lines of their exercise; they are manifested singly or 
in combinations lmited by the object in view. But in the 
plan of redemption they are exhibited in a combination and 
degree without a parallel in the history of the universe 
But more than this: in this grand enterprise alone, among all 
the multiplied works of his hands, is there any disclosure of 
that sweetest and most marvelous attribute of his nature, 
the existence of which was unknown to the most profound 
student of his glorious character among the angels of 
his presence, that attribute which is worn to tatters in man’s 
ungrateful ears—/is grace—his free and boundless love for 
unholy creatures. But all the counsel of God, all his sacri- 
fice in giving up his Son to redeem and his Spirit to sanc- 
tify, all the marvels of his wisdom, holiness, goodness, jus- 
tice and power would be nullified, if the subjects of the whole 
erand endeavor should fail to receive any effectual benefit 
from it. Nay, grace, the newly discovered attribute, will ap- 
pear to be powerless of all abiding good effects. The issue 
would be the ruin of the glory of the Spirit and the glory of 
the Father, equally with that of the glory of the Son. Can 
we wonder that an inheritance, which effectually forestalls, 
and which only can forestall, such inestimable mischiefs as 
these, should be esteemed and valued beyond all things else ? 

But there are other less imposing, but yet powerful, con- 
siderations that enter and enhance the value of God’s 


256 GIFts TO BELIEVERS. 


inheritance in the saints. They are valued from their at- 
tachment to the Son of his love. That Christ is precious to 
the hearts of his saints is one of the infallible marks of 
genuine saintship. They are valued by the Father for this 
affection to his Son, and for all it leads them to endure and 
do for the Son’s sake. Their glorious struggles to obey him, 
their resistance to his enemies, their devotion to his great 
cause, their self-denial, their suffering, their tears, their trust 
in him, their weary but patient waiting, all because of their 
fidelity and love to him, intensify the Father’s value for 
them. This value is also enhanced by the great ends God 
designs to accomplish by them. He has matched these frail 
and faulty creatures against the enormous numbers and the 
mighty combination and strength of the powers of darkness. 
He sends them out as his shepherd with a sling to confront 
the armed giant of the infernal hierarchy. By their weak 
hands he intends to save the lost world of guilty immortals, 
to pull down and grind to powder the mighty ramparts of 
the satanic kingdom, and to establish on an unchanging 
basis the splendor of his Son’s triumphant kingdom. They 
are to judge the world as the assessors of the royal Judge at 
the last day. They are probably to be the occasion by 
which the spread of sin in the future is to be stayed in the 
universe of God. They are the joint heirs with his Son, and 
will reign with him forever and ever. If these grand ends in 
the counsel of God can be defeated, then may the hope of 
the saints be confounded. This is the value in the Father’s 
eyes of his inheritance in the saints. Now the inference 
may be fairly drawn from this inheritance, in its bearing on 
the hope of his people, if God has actually such an inheri- 
tance in them, are they not entitled to hope? The founda- 
tion of it is stronger than the mountains. Is not therefore 
the absence of hope in the heart of a saint a reproach as 
well as a calamity, a mystery of weakness towards them- 
selves, a miracle of injustice towards God? 


GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE TO BELIEVERS. DAS | 


3. The sure hope of those who have been called of God is 
confirmed, even beyond these enormous guarantees, by a con- 
sideration of similar power. The third truth on which the 
apostle desired the improved spiritual intuitions of the 
Ephesian Christians to be exercised was “the exceeding great- 
ness of his power to us-ward who believe.” The discernment 
of this power would develop and confirm the hope of their 
calling, because it was the second guarantee of this hope. 
The power of the Almighty God could surely certify anything 
it undertook to do. Such is the apostle’s reasoning. The 
full energy of accumulated expression is used to convey an 
idea of this awful force. It is described as “the exceeding 
greatness of his power.” The original Greek words are even 
more expressive: they speak of it as “the might of the en- 
ergy of his power,” or, in other phrase, “the energy of his 
power in its might, in the uttermost of its strength.” The 
words express the full energy of the power that is in the 
Almighty God. They carry the notion that all the power 
that is in the Infinite God is pledged to guarantee the hope 
of every believer. The full weight of this expression cannot 
be brought out until we compare it with a fact, and that is, 
that in all the works of God he has never put forth more 
than a part of his power. The grandest exertion of it has 
been made in the several departments of the work of re- 
demption, but his full energy has never been taxed to the 
uttermost of infinite power. Already, in every believer a 
single instance of his peculiar and distinctive divine energy 
has been displayed in their new creation by the power of 
the Holy Spirit. Similar exercises of it attend the devel- 
opment of this germ of eternal life to its final perfection, and 
is all-sufficient to effect both. It is said to be the same 
power employed in raising our Lord from the dead. It was 
not exhausted in either of these marvelous works, the raising 
of a dead soul to spiritual life, and of a dead Christ to the 
resurrection life; it still abides undiminished and undimin- 

17 


258 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


ishable. This one part or portion of the almighty power is 
sufficient to give an unimpeachable guarantee to the hope of 
God’s calling and the expectation of his saints; it has been 
already exemplified and demonstrated. Yet the strong phrases 
of the inspired apostle assure us that, beyond this actually 
exerted and sufficient power, the whole residuary mass of 
power in the boundless energies of the Almighty God is 
pledged to secure the hope of his calling and the integrity 
of his inheritance. If all the power inherent in a Being 
whose every quality is stamped with the impress of absolute 
infinity, can secure a hope, then the hope of his calling 1s as- 
sured. Assurance can rise no higher. The great inheritance 
of God through the death of his Son and the limitless great- 
ness of his power are the two great buttresses of the Chris- 
tian hope. What can undermine it? If such is the safety 
of every believer, and such the real security of his hope, 
even of the weakest who has received the explicit assurance 
that “God is able to make him stand,” what ought to be the 
hope even of the weakest? Hope has no sphere except in 
the future; it deals only with the future; and if the future is 
assured, what can lawfully interfere with the hope and the 
present comfort of his saints? If their hope is defective, it 
does injustice to the ground on which it is based; it ought 
to be commensurate with it. Let us hearken to the gracious 
command, Give all diligence to reach the full assurance of 
hope to the end. The hope in the heart ought always to be 
adjusted to the ground of hope in the covenant. , 


CHAP THR: IV: 
THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘‘In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Hol 
Spirit of promise.”— Paul to the Ephesians. 


ANG continuous work must be performed by a succession 
of special acts. The work of the Holy Spirit in the 
purification of believers is accomplished by such a succes- 
sion. Abiding always in the regenerate soul, he discharges 
his covenant engagements by repeated exertions of his 
power, in a series of acts differing each from the other, 
though all are connected as parts of a whole, and each is 
productive of progressive effect on the grand purpose of 
them all. ‘These special acts of the Spirit are sampled in 
the witness of the Spirit, in the anointing of the Spirit, and 
in the action alluded to in the passage at the head of this 
chapter, the sealing of the Spirit. Each of these actions has 
a general and a special significance, as will be illustrated 
hereafter. A seal is a symbol of expression, an inarticulate 
sign to which a certain meaning, or a certain number of 
meanings, has been attached by a conventional or arbitrary 
appointment. The use of the seal has been a custom among 
all nations of any advancement in civilization, and among 
barbarous or semi-civilized tribes. The signet, or seal, was 
in use from an early period, at least as early as the time of 
Judah the son of Jacob. It was common among the kings 
as well as the private persons of the oriental nations, and 
has descended to modern nations in the usages of law and 
commerce, and as the personal signatures of individual men. 
Among the ancients the seal was often worn also as a per- 
sonal ornament as well as an instrument of business, generally 
259 


2.60 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


as a ring upon the finger, and sometimes as a bracelet upon 
the arm. This use of the seal also continues in modern 
times. No special form was essential to the uses of a seal; 
it might be of any form and with any device graven upon it. 
The actual purpose of the symbol might be different, being 
more or less extensive as determined by custom, by the 
law of the land, or by the determination of individual will. 
A seal of extreme simplicity of form might be made to 
carry almost any wealth of meaning. The connection be- 
tween the sign and the thing signified being purely con- 
ventional, or a matter of voluntary arrangement, it is ob- 
vious that either one or any number of meanings might 
be attached to it. The seal was often rich in significance. 
It was used to grant authority, to give a commission, to 
delegate power. Thus Ahasuerus, the Persian king, took 
his ring from his finger and gave it to Haman, the son of 
Hammedatha, when he authorized the destruction of the 
captive Jews. It was used to attest instrwments of writing, 
commissions, covenants, and contracts, as in the case of Jere- 
miah the prophet, when he bought the field in Anathoth, of 
Hanameel, his uncle’s son. It was used for the purpose of 
confirming and giving assurance, as when Abraham received 
the sign of circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness 
of the faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised. It was 
used as a mediwm of proof, or a testimony, as when Paul 
appealed to the converts under his preaching as the seal 
of his apostleship. It was used as a certificate of trustworthi- 
ness in a ground of confidence and a pledge of safety to those 
who relied upon it, as when the foundation of God is said 
to stand sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that 
are his; and when Satan is cast into the bottomless pit, and a 
seal is set upon him for a thousand years. Finally, it was used 
to secure secrecy, as when John in Patmos saw a book sealed 
with seven seals. While there is no definite room to assert 
that the seal of the Spirit is designed to carry all these 


THE SEALING OF THE Sptrtr. 261 


meanings, yet certainly the use of the word seal, to describe 
a sanctifying act of the Holy Ghost, would be altogether 
- misleading, if it was not to be construed as carrying some of 
the most important of them at least. In one place the seal- 
ing of the Spirit is indicated in general terms as the con- 
firmation of the hope of believers, as when we are told not 
to grieve the Holy Spirit, whereby we are sealed unto the 
day of redemption. In more than one place the sealing of 
the Spirit is identified with the earnest of the Spirit, as a 
general pledge of safety to the believer. This is, then, the 
general significance of the seal of the Holy Ghost. But there 
is a special significance, as we shall see, not absolutely iden- 
tical with the earnest, but going somewhat beyond it, not so 
much designed to give assurance of safety as to keep our 
minds in the love of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. 
_It is this special influence in giving stability to all the mental 
exercises of the believer which has so important and pow- 
erful a bearing on the hope and peace of the saint in this 
present life. It is to this special energy of grace, then, that we 
wish to turn attention. What does the sealing of the Spirit 
under this aspect signify ? 

‘1. We remark, then, as preliminary, that it is a work of the 
Spirit peculiar to souls already in the faith. Some of his 
gracious work is done in unbelievers in order to lead them to 
the exercise of faith; but this sealing work is not; it is dis- 
tinctly said that the sealing with the Holy Spirit of promise 
took place “after ye believed.” 

2. Neither is it to be confounded with regeneration. Re- 
generation is done in the unregenerate soul, and in order to 
regenerate and change the heart. The prayer of Paul for 
the increase of grace in the Ephesians proceeded on the 
previous recognition of their faith in Jesus, and their love to 
all the saints. This faith and love to the brethren are recog- 
nized marks of a soul already regenerate. The sealing of 
the Spirit, then, was to be done in the regenerate soul. This 


262 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


also indicates a distinction between the seal and the earnest 
of the Holy Ghost: the earnest is given in regeneration, the 
sealing, in its special significance, after it. | 

3. Nor is the sealing of the Spirit to be confounded with 
sanctification in general. Sanctification is a term that en- 
braces the whole progressive work of subduing the inward 
energy of sin in the soul, and inbreeding the graces of holi- 
ness in the place of it. The sealing is one of many special 
acts of gracious energy by which this long, progressive work 
is accomplished. It is no more to be confounded with the 
general work it is designed to accomplish, than the witness of 
the Spirit, or the intercession of ihe Spirit, or the bringing to 
mind of the Spirit. All of them are special acts by which 
the general work is accomplished—specific and separate 
manifestations of the Spirit’s influence by which he carries 
out his great covenanted work, but are to be distinguished 
from it, although connected with it. What, then, is the nature 
of the special significance of the sealing of the Holy Ghost? 

4. This question may be answered in the light of a testi- 
mony of Scripture, and of a Christian experience common to 
every believer, and really not unknown to some unregenerate 
persons, who have been to a certain extent under the influence 
of the Holy Ghost, and who have found out, by what may 
prove a fatal experience, how frail and evanescent are spiritual 
impressions in an unholy soul. The Bible recognizes this 
tendency to fade out in both classes, the regenerate and the 
unregenerate. It speaks of a goodness which is like the 
morning clouds and the early dew. It exhorts believers to 
stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made them 
free, and to keep themselves in the love of God. The uni- 
versal experience of Christians illustrates the need of these 
exhortations, and for the sealing of the Spirit. They know 
how frail are their richest spiritual apprehensions of the 
truth, their warmest and most comfortable frames of feeling, | 
their most ardent aspirations, their firmest resolves. They 


= 


THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. 26a 


know how easily the spirit of prayer dies out, how quickly 
clear and joyful apprehensions of the doctrines of grace, and 
the promises of the covenant, die away, how soon the most 
spiritual frames of feeling perish. All this they know by an 
experience too definite to be mistaken, too sorrowful to be de- 
nied. They tremble under it; they thus learn to mistrust 
their hope; they are often led by it to discount all their 
claims to Christian character, and they are thus emptied of 
comfort. It is obvious that the relief for this would be an 
influence to counteract this evanescent character of spiritual 
apprehensions, and to give stability to the various exercises 
of the Christian feelings which delight so much by their 
presence, and grieve so much by their fleeting and unstable 
hold on the heart. The old hymn which has voiced the 
experience of so many modern followers of Christ repre- 
sents exactly the felt want and the recognized relief :* 


‘*Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it: 
Prone to leave the God I love: 
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it; 
Seal it from thy courts above.” 


As the need is for some more stable and abiding form to 
the experiences of grace, the cure is to be found zn the seal- 
ing of the Spirit. The nature of this sealing, then, in its 
special significance, is plain enough: it is an act of the 
Spirit’s influence, giving stability and strength to all the exer- 
cises of the renewed goul, and thus adding clearness to the 
evidences of regeneration, giving force and definiteness to 
the doctrines and precepts of the word, infusing vigor into 
hope, multiplying comfort, and bestowing firmness and 
endurance on the zeal of the soul, and on all the energies of 
conduct. It is an action of the Holy Spirit assuring and 
adding vigor to all his work in the heart, giving more definite, 
stable, and abiding form to all the graces, the germ of which 


* Philip of Maberley’s ‘‘ Love of the Spirit.” 


264 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


he has implanted in regeneration. It is done in pursuance 
of his covenant engagements, with a view to the more effec- 
tive advancement of his work of sanctifying the believer. 
The sealing of the Spirit is an all-important part of his official 
action. It is not only, in one sense at least, essential to the 
discharge of the functions assigned to him in the covenant of 
grace, but it is indispensable to the comfort and the highest 
usefulness of the souls he has undertaken to purify. The 
joy of the Lord is their strength. This will appear under 
the following statements. 

5. The Spirit seals and gives permanence to the desire of the 
regenerate soul for the salvation of God. He originally creates 
this desire in the unconverted heart, awakens the conscience, 
alarms the fears, overcomes the mad resistance which always 
meets it and avimates it, until the sinner has been made 
willing in the day of his power. But for this gracious action 
of the Spirit on the will, the sinning soul would surely ac- 
complish its own ruin. In this treatment of the unconverted 
soul we have an image of the sealing power of the Spirit 
dealing with the will of the saint. - The resemblance is main- 
tained along the line of a general direction; but a difference 
is obvious. He acts on the will of both classes of men—in 
the one to implant a desire, in the other to stimulate and 
confirm a desire already implanted; in the one it is an act 
of pure grace sovereignly exerted, in the other it is an act of 
grace under covenant, sovereignly determining time and 
measure of relief, yet faithful to covenant obligations freely 
and sovereignly assumed. A seal is a symbol confirmatory 
of all the pledges in the covenant or contract sealed. To 
the unconverted God has not come under any covenant 
pledge, and may, therefore, at any time previous to the exer- 
cise of faith withdraw the Spirit, and give the resisting sin- 
ner up to his own devices. But as soon as he believes, the 
whole case is changed. God has graciously pledged himself 
to save the sinner who believes, and as soon as he believes 


Ee. PGA PTY 25, 


THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. 265 


God comes under covenant; he is bound by his own gracious 
pledge. He now undertakes to absolutely save ; but he under- 
takes to do it without violating the nature of the being he 
has taken in hand. He rigorously respects all the laws of his 
being. As manisacreature of reason and will, God saves him 
in full recognition of both. He saves, not against his will, but 
through it; he makes the sinner willing; he awakens his de- 
sires, and then complies with them. This desire has to be 
kept alive in the heart, and made to lead in the whole pro- 
gress of the sanctifying work down to its triumphant conclu- 
sion. As is the desire of the regenerate soul, so is the pro- 
gress of his purification. Around this central point in the 
mighty struggle the whole contention between the powers oi 
darkness and the powers of grace is concentrated. To ex- 
tinguish the desire of spiritual good, all the agencies hostile 
to the salvation of the soul are directed; to sustain and in- 
crease it is the aim of all the agencies friendly to that grand 
purpose. It is the pivotal point of the whole case. Satan 
knows that he cannot coérce a soul contrary to its own will, 
and his whole strength is put forth to misguide the will, and 
to make him the voluntary agent of his own destruction. God 
equally respects the freedom of the creature, and grace 
seeks to save him through his own will. That awful faculty 
of free will, at once the glory and the peril of a moral agent, 
is the vital centre of the whole mighty battle. It is, there- 
fore, always surrounded with dangerous influences. The re- 
maining depravity in a regenerate soul, that law of sin in the 
members which is always contending with the new law of 
grace in the mind, is always subtly eating at the desire of 
the soul. The world and all its seductions are perpetually 
adjusted to awaken other desires to supersede the desire of 
grace. The mighty art and craft of the tempter and his 
trained legions of seducers are all converged about this 
one point. Here, too, the contending forces of the glorious 
covenant concentrate their strength, and in no particular is the 


2.66 GIFTs To BELIEVERS. 


wonderful energy of divine grace more wonderfully displayed 
than in keeping the desire of eternal life burning, unextin- 
guished by all the tremendous forces brought to bear on its ex- 
tinction. Ah! itis ..o0t like the love-light of the Hindoo maiden 
set afloat as the dusk settles down on the smooth waters 
of the sacred Ganges and under the still air of an Indian 
summer evening. It is a point of slender flame, no bigger 
than the blaze of a candle, set afloat on the wild waves of 
the tempest-ridden seas. The mad waters are lashing at it; 
the winds are blowing .a hurricane upon it; it is amazing 
that it lives fora moment. But, strange to see and strange 
to say, clear, shining through the darkness and the storm; 
now riding on the crest of the billows; now buried in the 
belly of the deep, that slender flame floats unharmed. It 
has been sealed by the Holy Ghost, and in that impervious 
casing of covenanted grace it will ride out the tempest, safe 
and inextinguishable. Christians are sometimes tempted to 
hard thoughts of God because he does not respond more 
promptly to their desires after grace; but that desire itself is 
proof of the living energy of grace within them; this alone 
ought to comfort them. Those in whose breasts the desire 
for God’s salvation lives steadily, even though somewhat 
feebly, as the years pass, know something at least of the 
sealing of the Spirit. The stronger and more eager, the 
more constant and abiding in its eagerness, this desire is, 
the more clear becomes the evidence of the sealing of the 
Spirit. Without his perpetual touch the desire would have 
perished in the heart of an apostle. Often fluctuating, often 
feeble, sometimes apparently extinct, it is nevertheless inde- 
structible, because it has been sealed by the Holy Ghost. 
This living desire, sealed thus by the energy of the Spirit, will 
always lead to the higher energy of volition corresponding 
with it, the sealed purpose and determination to seek 
actively for the favor of God. Often, under discouragements 
and serious trials of faith, failures to realize specifie hopes, 


THE SEALING OF THE,.SPIRIT. 267 


or to attain the measure of comfort we desire, there is strong 
temptation to construe ourselves as altogether mistaken in 
our confidence and hope, and thus to abandon hope and 
effort altogether. If our hearts were not sealed by the Spirit 
that hour of trial would be apt to prevail; but when, in spite 
of discouragement, the desire still breeds and animates the 
purpose to seek on, and if need be perish seeking for mercy, 
it shows the sealing of the Spirit. Believers have ample 
reason to thank God for this gift of his grace to his chil- 
dren. 

6. The Spirit also seals our sense and feeling of our spir- 
itual necessities. The intuitions of sin and the sense of 
guiltiness and personal pollution, which spring up under the 
convicting energies of the Holy Ghost, are always painful; 
the mingled feeling of dread and shame is well-nigh unbear- 
able. Nature shrinks under it, and an effort to throw it off 
is inevitable. Even in the experience of the Christian, who 
has desired and prayed for these deepened intuitions of his 
personal sin, there is need for caution and self-restraint 
when his prayer is answered, and this quickened sense of 
his criminality is upon him. He needs to have his desire 
for them, and his faith in their value to him, sealed by the 
Spirit. Under the impulse of natural reluctance to suffer, and 
under the constant, secret repulsion of the law of sin remaining 
in him, a silent resistance will be set up which needs con- 
stant watchfulness and a steady effort to overcome. Other- 
wise, the painful but wholesome apprehensions will begin to 
fade out, and the Christian soul returns to a certain normal 
condition of feeling, partially sensible of the criminal nature 
of his sin, yet so imperfectly apprehensive of it as to leave 
room for many a grave and haunting fear lest these needful 
intuitions of sin should be fatally defective. It is obvious 
how these clear and strong apprehensions of spiritual neces- 
sities would exert a profound modifying influence upon 
character and on all the gracious experiences of the soul, if 


268 | Girts To BELIEVERS. 


they were sealed and made stable in the heart. They would 
lead to a deeper repentance; to a more profound humility; 
to a more eager clinging to Christ as the Saviour; to a richer 
ultimate development of all the graces of a purified heart. It 
is very sure, that if the Holy Spirit did not seal the percep- 
tion and feeling of spiritual want, they would speedily die 
out altogether. All who have this abiding and prevalent, 
even though fluctvating and feeble, apprehension of their 
spiritual wants, are not entirely without some evidence of 
the sealing of the Spirit in their hearts. 

7. The sealing work of the [Holy Ghost also embraces the 
great doctrines of the covenant, and so affects the sense and 
spiritual discernment of their real significance as to bring 
out their intrinsic power to impress the human heart. No- 
thing is more unintelligible to a certain class of minds than the 
esteem placed by others on the doctrines of the gospel. To 
them they are mere intellectual combinations of certain mys- 
terious and unpractical ideas, in no way different from mere 
metaphysical or speculative theories; both are assigned to 
the same class of intellectual productions to which all such 
theories are asserted to belong. ‘To them the zeal for doc- 
trinal accuracy is nothing more than zeal for precision in 
idea where it is of no particular importance whether accu- 
racy or inaccuracy prevails. ‘The conception is wholly erro- 
neous. A Christian doctrine is no mere combination of mere 
ideas; it is a verbal description of a great fact. Accuracy 
and completeness in the conception of facts is recognized as 
a matter of supreme importance in these days of scientific 
investigation, and the verbal description of a fact is recog- 
nized as only relatively important to the fact it describes. 
The verbal description of a great work of engineering is en- 
tirely subordinate to the thing which is described. The doc- 
trinal statements and expositions of the Christian teachers 
are mere descriptions of great things, some accomplished al- 
ready, and some yet to be accomplished. The doctrine of 


THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. 269 


the resurrection is a mere verbal statement of a great fact in 
the future history of the human race. The doctrine of the 
atonement is the verbal account of a grand enterprise accom- 
plished in order to bear on the sins of mankind. The doc- 
trine of the kingdom of Christ is a mere verbal delineation 
of the force and ascendency of a kingdom now and yet to be 
as completely a matter of fact in the history of the world as 
the kingdom of England or the empire of Germany. The 
blunder in the conception of doctrine is gross and inexcus- 
able. The explanation shows that there is an immeasurable 
power in the Christian doctrine. The doctrine of.a divine 
Saviour and the redeeming energy of his blood is the only 
possible source of a sound hope and comfort to a mind re- 
ally awake to just conceptions of sin. But as soon as the 
notion of an effectual atonement takes hold of the heart 
pierced and pained by a sense of guilt, it will at once reveal 
its antidotal power. Peace will spread its white wings over 
the disturbed soul, and it will rejoice in God the Saviour. 
This instance samples the influence of the Christian doc- 
trine when apprehended by the intimate knowledge Paul 
desired for the Ephesians. But, alas, how soon the sweet 
vision passes! The Saviour found is far too often like the 
Saviour seen after the resurrection, at the supper-table in 
Emmaus—revealed in the breaking of bread, and satisfying 
one spell of hunger, and then vanishing away. How glorious 
would be the blessing of a sealed and stable vision of a 
divine Saviour! How sweet are even these passing appre- 
hensions of the unsearchable riches, the freedom, the com- 
pleteness, the exact adjustments to human need of the great 
salvation. Fleeting as they are they abide in memory like a 
sweet spring morning, and often exert a commanding infiu- 
ence for a half-century of time. But, alas, they commonly 
vanish soon, like a sunset glory of crimson and gold sinking 
into the grey dusk of twilight, and often into the darkness of 
night. How happy if they could only be sealed by the 


tb” 


AAU) GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


Spirit into some stable dwelling in the rejoicing soul! That 
effect is possible to every believer, to enable him to obey 
the command to rejoice in the Lord always; for the Spirit 
does seal the vision of a Saviour and his great salvation; and 
if more sought as a sealing power he would do more of his 
sealing work. In like manner, he seals the view of the plan 
of salvation. How clear and simple, how complete and 
satisfactory, the way of life seemed in the first hour of a 
living faith! How easy it was to believe! How simple faith 
appeared to be! How completely it lost sight of itself, and 
how fully it was satisfied with Christ! It wanted no other 
ground of trust; he was enough! Yet how quickly this 
happy mood passed away! How mysterious faith grew to 
be! What struggles, vain struggles, to get back to the same 
state of mind! What a blessing it would be to have that 
view of Christ, faith, and the plan of salvation sealed and 
stamped with a more stable hold in the heart! Do we not 
begin to see how precious is the sealing of the Holy Ghost? 

8. This will appear still more forcibly when we consider 
him as the sealer of the promises. These promises are in 
themselves both great and precious. _When faith takes. 


proper hold upon them they lift the burden of all earthly 
care; they soothe sorrow; they quell regrets; they open 


boundless prospects of permanent and invaluable possessions 
to the heirs of God. Yet how poor is the effect they gener- 


ally have! Any trial of faith in them, any apparent failure 
to realize them according to our own notions of what the 
fulfilment ought to be—in the time, place, or substance of 
that fulfilment—seems to empty them of all meaning, and 
turn them into mockeries of our misery instead of stable ele- 
ments of our comfort. Nay, in trials of faith which are really 
severe, when the providences of God seem to deny his words, 
how precious then would be the sealing of the promises in 
our hearts, and the enablement of faith to stand steadfast on 
the bare word of the Lord, coupled with a full trust 7n him 


Se ee eS 


a 


! 
a 


Te 


THE SEALING OF THE SPIRIT. yaa 


as well as in Ais promises. The promises are often fulfilled 
when they seem fora time to be denied. Qur Lord prayed 
to be delivered, and was delivered from what he feared; yet 
through all the needful trial he had to go. His faith did 
not fail, though the cup did not pass. Deliverance may 
come after an_evil happens; it may be arrested_as well as 
prevented. The denial of a petition is often the prelude to. 
its answer, or the grant of a better equivalent. God does does 
not engage to answer all prayers of his people according to 
the literal tenor of their petitions, for their prayers are often. 


diametrically opposed, and this would introduce utter confu- 
sion. Unlimited answers to all human petitions would make 
the discretion of man, and not the wisdom of God, the ruling — 


power in the administration of the universe. He will not 
give a stone for bread, and Christians may be often asking 
for a scorpion, when they think they are asking for an egg. 


He wants them to trust himself as well as his words. On 
the other hand, he does not wish us to construe his pro- 


mises as empty of all meaning and encouragement t to pray 


because he reserves the discretion of _answering s some peti- 


Nera eh scetetmim nt pe 


| tions in his own _ in his own hands. “No, “after all deductions are re made. 
' the promises the promises stand ; they are great and precious ; they _war- 


rant steadfast and ‘unflinching prayer; they Saseeat unfailing — 


expectations xpectations of a certain class of blessings ; they encourage - 
_hope for many others. Livery prayer of faith offered accord- \ 


ing to the written will of God is sure of some answer, in 
some manner. There will be a large percentage of literal 
answers to bold and patient, ardent and submissive pleading 
of the promises. No doubt one reason why Christians are 
timid in pleading the promises is that their insight 1s too 
feeble to disclose the real meaning of the promises. It is 
certain that we are commanded to come boldly to the throne 
of grace. It is certain that great boldness of faith is com- 
mended. The promises are like checks written in invisible 
ink, plain when brought under the warmth of quickened 


ie, Gifts To BELIEVERS. 


affections, but unseen in the common light and heat of day. 
When they open their sense to the healthy spiritual mind, 
they are full of power and great consolation. If they were 
only opened and sealed in the heart by the Holy Ghost, 
there would be no impediment to their free effects on the 
soul; no trial would shake our confidence in them; no mis- 
conception of them would empty them of their enormous 
power to stimulate energy in obedience, and to fill the heart 
with the sunrise splendor of an immortal hope. 

9. Lhe Spirit seals the spirit of prayer. As God has ap- 
pointed prayer and promised to answer it, it is necessary 
that man should be adjusted to the work. There must be a 
spirit or frame of mind suitable to the priceless ordinance, 
This spirit of prayer embodies a lively confidence in the in- 
strumentality adjusted to the real force that is in it. As it 
is not for God’s honor to appoint an ordinance, and then 
turn it to shame by making it powerless, so the true spirit of 
prayer will be adjusted to this reliability in it. When the 
spirit of prayer fills the soul, it will become eager, ardent, 
intense in desire, resolute in action, patient in supplication, 
and steadfast in faith. With this spirit there will be, not 
only power in prayer, but confident and unpresuming expec- 
tations of answers to prayer. The gift of such a spirit, and 
itis one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to believers, is an 
absolutely priceless grant. Yet how seldom it emerges in the 
experience of the Christian! How few of them are ac- 
quainted with the rapture of the exalted frame born of 
strong desire and confident expectation! How few ever 
realize the sense of power with a faithful God which grows 
out of this spirit of prayer exalted to some of its higher de- 
grees! Yet this is not exclusively the privilege of a few 
favored saints; it is warranted in the covenant to any who 
will seek for it, however it may be confined in fact to the 
few who turn the privilege to account. It is not unfre- 
quently given, but it is not cherished and preserved, and 


—™, 
‘ - ad 
- |, 


LS as Ee eB apd Sar As PES By ea eke eps 


| 
— 
, 


fo 


bP 


THE SEALING OF THE Sprit. 273 


generally proves to be only a passing mood, leaving often 
unutterable sense of loss, and yearning for its return. But 
it does not come, for it is not sealed by the Spirit. He is 
neglected in his sealing office, and the soul is left enfeebled 
and desolate. But he can stereotype the spirit of prayer in 
the heart, and is more ready to do all his gracious offices 
in the Christian soul than earthly parents are to give good 
gifts to their children. This sealing blessing is one of the 
Spirit’s gifts to believers. 

10._/n like manner the Spirit seals the evidences of conver- 
ston in the renewed heart. Wow often do these appear dim 
and doubtful even in a heart truly regenerate! At _At some rare 
times they are clear and full of comfort; it is frequently the ly the 
case that the soul has to look back from a period of c¢ confu- 
sion to a clearer manifestation in the distant past. Just as 
‘David once did when his soul was cast down within him : 
his only resource was to look back and recall the deliverance 
and the joy that came to him when he was in the land of 
Jordan and of the Hermonites, in the hill Mizar. This 
policy is never long satisfactory, nor is it always safe. The 
comfort of the believer ought always to be sought directly in 
Christ the Lord, and only subordinately in anything else, no 
matter how lawful. It would often be well for the believer, 
instead of worrying over the effort to spell out the meaning 
of signs which have lost color and definite outline, to go at 
once, as at the first, to the feet of Jesus, and appeal to the 
help of the Paraclete for sin, and to the Paraclete for the 
inward struggle. The atoning blood of the one will always 
give peace. (The other can bear witness with our spirits that 
we are children of God, quicken the evidences in us and add 
his testimony to them, and then seal the witness of both in 
the heart. 

11. The Spirit, in a word, seals all the energies of grace 
of every kind, the affections, emotions, principles, and all the 
other vital driving forces of the regenerate soul. Zeal and 

18 


Wa 
274 , Girts To BELIEVERS. 


real energy, real joy, and a living delight in all the service of 
God, appear sometimes in the experience of the average be- 
liever, and then there is always life in his work, and happy 
feelings even in hard and self-denying labor. But when 
it passes off it leaves a spirit behind it which makes every 
duty a burden, every sacrifice a grief, and every energy an 
exhausted force. But a steady and ardent energy can be in- 
fused into all the graces of the new man by the sealing of the 
Spirit. All the principles of obedience can be made staunch 
and resolute; every impulse can be turned to useful account, 
and every affection be drawn out into pure and high devel- 
opment by this gift to believers. 

12. Lastly, the Spirit seals the hope of heaven in_the regen- 
erate heart; and can so quicken and seal it in its improved 
condition as to make it produce its legitimate effects on the 
hope and the happiness of the Christian in this life. The 
hope of heaven is in every saint, but it exerts an influence so 
maimed and impoverished as to be even grotesquely out of 
proportion to the intrinsic power of the object on which it is 
exercised. [Heaven expresses the very highest embodiment 
of glory, honor, and eternal life. A real and well-founded 
hope of entering into such supreme conditions of blessedness. 
has a natural tendency to breed not merely comfort, but joy 
and exultation in the highest possible degree. But this ten- 
dency is generally disabled of its effects in the experience of 
the great bulk of regenerate men. Hven when the character 
of Christian is fairly claimed, and although it is confessed 
that every Christian soul will assuredly go into the mansions. 
of the blessed dead, yet as soon as such a soul is challenged 
to actually rise to the height of its great and acknowledged 
expectations, it falters and trembles, and often passes over 
into the contrary mood of actual despondency. In this state 
of mind, even heaven becomes a depressing thought, and the 
pilgrim of grace, on his way straight into the golden gates, 
goes forward with his head wrapped in mourning weeds, his. 


ee eS ee 


d 
is 


a ae ~ 


THe SEALING OF THE’ SPIRIT. 275 


eyes wet with tears, and his heart full of pain. His whole 
mental state is in a false condition, unworthy of his hopes, 
cruel to himself, and dishonoring to his Saviour. [I the 
blessed sealing influence of the Holy Spirit could be brought 
to bear on the hope of heaven, all this would be changed. 
The transition into glory would never so alter its natural 
effect as to become a depressing influence; all earthly cares 
would be transfigured, and heaven, as the covenanted and 
sealed home of the soul, would throw down upon the shad- 
ows and the dark places of the earthly pilgrimage the sweet 
and mellow splendor of the Paradise of God. To enjoy 
habitually the hope of heaven, it is necessary to seek for the 
sealing of the Spirit. It is a gift to believers beyond con- 
ception in value. 

It is plain that all Christians of every age, at all times 
and under all circumstances, need the sealing office of the 
Holy Ghost. The tendency of all the Christian frames and 
exercises, under the present conditions of existence, is to 
fade out; they need always to be confirmed and strength- 
ened. The convictions or intuitive apprehension and sense 
of sin; the discernment of the grace of God in its un- 
searchable riches; the fatherhood of God; the love of the 
Spirit; the grace of the Son; suitable views of doctrinal 
truth ; resolutions of more fidelity in service; the perception 
of need in ourselves and others; the communion of saints; 
interest in the souls of particular persons and in the conver- 
sion of the world; desires after holiness and efficiency in 
service—all these are subject to this tendency to fade out, 
and need the sealing of the Spirit. It is specially needed 
by the aged Christian as the world goes more and more to 
decay for him, and the realities of eternity bulk larger on 
his vision. It is specially needed by all in times of afflic- 
tion. It is one of the most precious of the gifts of the 
Spirit to believers. 


COHPAS a gays 
THE UNOTION OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” 
—John. 


HESE words describe another of the series of special 
acts by which the Holy Spirit carries out his general 
work of purifying the covenanted soul. Hach of these acts, 
or certainly some of the more prominent members of the 
series, seem to have a general and a special significance. 
The Holy Ghost is given as a general seal, pledge, or security 
that the promises to faith will be redeemed; and in this view 
of it it is identical with the earnest of the Spirit; yet there is 
a special sealing which is designed to give stability to the 
various exercises of the renewed heart. The witness of the 
Spirit has a general significance, because the gift of the 
Holy Ghost in regeneration is a proof of saving grace in the 
soul; yet this is different from that special testimony which 
is borne concurrently with the testimony of the believer's 
own spirit in proving his sonship. It is equally true in 
reference to the action called the wnction of the Spirit; it, 
too, has a general and special significance. The general 
grant of the Holy Spivit to renew the heart is spoken of as 
an outpouring of the Spirit, and an anointing of the Spirit. 
The expression is a figurative one, drawn from the practice 
of pouring oil on the head of one chosen to an office, or con- 
secrated to a particular service. Oil was thus used as the 
official sign of setting apart to the office of king, priest, 
prophet, and captain of the host among the ancient Jews. 
It was thus figuratively transferred to the vocabulary of the 
gospel system in order to express different impressions made 
by the grant and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The general 
276 


THE UNCTION OF THE SPIRIT. ee 


significance of the unction of the Spirit was this general set- 
ting apart or consecration to the service of God. But the 
act of anointing with oil did not only carry a certain signifi- 
cance in meaning, but made a certain impression. The mean- 
ing of the act was one thing, the impression of the act was 
another, and the act itself was different from both. Nor will 
we be able to gain a full conception of the action as a whole 
unless we distinguish between the mere act which was transi- 
tory, and the more abiding intention of the act and the more 
abiding impression which it made. In the physical anoint- 
ing with oil there was included the pouring out of the mate- 
rial, the purpose to be served by it, and the effect on the 
person of the individual anointed. In the anointing of the 
Spirit there is the agency applied, which is the Spirit him- 
self; the purpose to be gained—consecration to the general 
or some special service of God; and the impression made on ~ 
the heart and spirit of the anointed man to fit him for that 
service. This enward impression is the special significance in 
the unction of the Holy Ghost. In the sealing action of the 
sanctifier there is a similar distinction between the seal and 
the impression which it makes on one side, and the pur- 
_ pose to be secured on the other. As, then, the sealing of 
the Spirit is more than a general confirmatory grant or earn- 
est, and implies also a special inward influence, giving sta- 
bility to the frames and exercises of the Christian experi- 
ence; as the witness of the Spirit is more than a general 
proof or testimony from the work of the Holy Ghost, but is 
also a special testimony about that work, giving assurance of 
personal salvation, so the unction of the Spirit is a special, 
consecrating influence, not only for the purpose of setting 
apart for service, but for conveying a special personal fitness 
to do the work or endure the trial. 

Yet a further discrimination must be made. This unction 
is said to be attended with a peculiar effect on the powers of 
spiritual discernment: ‘Ye have an unction from the Holy 


278 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


One, and ye know all things.” A similar effect 1s exerted on 
the power of spiritual intuition in regeneration. Is, then, 
this peculiar unction of the Spirit to be identified with re- 
generation, or, if not, in what does its power on the energies 
of spiritual discernment differ from that of regenerating 
grace? That the unction of the Spirit is not to be con- 
founded with regeneration’ may be inferred from a number 
of circumstances. It is inferable from the fact that regen- 
eration, with its effect on the spiritual vision, can occur but 
once, and its effect on the vision is to create the power to see, 
where no such power existed before; but the oil of joy for 
mourning may be repeatedly applied, and its effect on the 
vision is simply to heal disorders which have impeded a 
vision already existing, but diseased and disordered. It is 
inferable from the fact that this unction is always attended 
with strong and rejoicing spiritual apprehensions, ‘ye know 
all things”; whereas in regeneration only a percentage of its 
subjects see very clearly at the period of regeneration, and 
frequently ‘“‘see men as trees walking.” It is inferable from 
the fact disclosed in the experience of Christians universally, 
that after the grant of spiritual vision in regeneration there 
is many a spell of distressing darkness, showing disorder in 
the granted vision, and the need of subsequent healing influ- 
ences from the same loving and healing Spirit. The eyes of 
the saint have to be anointed with eye-salve that they may 
see many a time after the power of vision has been conferred 
upon them. It may be inferred from the allusions of John 
in the context of the passage at the head of this chapter; he 
evidently teaches that the unction, with its greatly improved 
powers of spiritual knowledge, was in those who possessed 
the grace of regeneration; they were already saints, and this 
abiding condition of advanced intuition was superinduced 
upon previous gifts. Moreover, the exhortation of this same 
John, in Revelation, to the church of Laodicea, to “ anoint 
their eyes with eye-salve that they may see,” implies the 


THE UNCTION oF THE SPIRIT. 279 


Same distinction. The church was in a state of extraordi- 
nary declension; they are described as neither cold nor hot; 
not warm with vigorous spiritual life, nor yet cold in spiritual 
death. They were in utter spiritual darkness; but it was the 
difference between eyes entirely blind and eyes diseased, 
bandaged closely, and confined in a darkened room. They 
could see no more than if they were actually without eye- 
sight, and they needed an eye-salve which was never used to 
give sight to the blind, but only to heal disorders which 
prevented the use of a sight which was actually in posses- 
sion. It is not warrantable to confound the unction of the 
Spirit, and its effect on the organs of spiritual perception, 
with regeneration and its effect on the same organ when 
merely diseased. Regeneration creates the power of vision 
in eyes totally blind; the unction heals its diseases when 
given, and enables it to see clearly. This discrimination 
has not been uselessly made. It brings before the troubled 
Christian, tried by long spells of imperfect spiritual discern- 
ment, the knowledge of a remedy not confined to the instant 
and unrepeatable act of regeneration, whose effects his own 
experience shows are not able to keep him in rejoicing views 
of the truth, but a remedy capable of repeated and continuous 
operation. 'The saints of God would be in a bad condition 
indeed, if no steady sanctifying grace was provided for them, 
and they were only left to the one impulse given in regen- 
eration. 

But this is not all that is important to be said in order to 
lead up to a clear conception of this precious influence of the 
Holy Spirit. The unction is not to be confounded with sanc- 
tification in general any more than with regeneration. It is 
one of the actions of the Spirit by which he carries forward 
the work of sanctification, but is not to be identified abso- 
lutely with it. It is always connected with it and designed 
to promote it, but is yet to be distinguished from it. There 
is a practical use for the distinction, inasmuch as the peculiar 


280 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


nature of the unction is so attractive, while its effects are so 
purifying that it invites activity in seeking, more than some 
other means of sanctification which may be equally effective, 
yet not so pleasing. The graces and gifts of sanctification 
may grow in darkness and pain; they always grow with con- 
scious joy and freedom in their growth under the unction of 
the Spirit. Trial and suffering, though commonly the con- 
ditions of growth in grace, and to be welcomed as such, are, 
nevertheless, not the only conditions of it. This will be ap- 
parent as soon as we conceive the real nature of the unction 
or inward impression made by the special anointing of the 
Holy Ghost. This unction may be thus described: it is a 
special act of gracious energy on the part of the indwelling 
Spirit, by which he so softens and clears up the heart of the 
saint that all the exercises of his graces, faith, hope, penitence, 
long-suffering, joy, and gentleness—in a word, all the ener- 
gies determined in him by regenerating grace—become free, 
sweet, definite, clear, and full of a delightful energy. The im- 
pression is analogous to the softening and soothing influence 
of a perfumed oil on the skin. The progress in sanctifica- 
tion is always delightful under the unction of the Spirit, be- 
cause it always brings clearness to vision, warmth and sweet- 
ness to the affections, fervency and great tenderness to 
prayer, great submission and great boldness to faith, great 
ardor to hope, great keenness and pitying softness to zeal— 
in a word, this wonderful grace of the Holy One infuses 
fresh degrees of happy influence into all the energies of the 
regenerate soul, and causes all its graces to grow with a de- 


lightful freedom. Under this action a certain fervor of 


saintly consecration appears in the character; a certain holy 
ardor and tenderness in the prayers, a certain eagerness and 
tender solicitude in the zeal; a certain loving energy in the 
conduct ; a certain loving and spiritual elevation in the whole 
manifested spirit of the anointed man. Many a truly regen- 
erate and painfully sanctified child of God never reaches,— 


THE UNCTION OF THE SPIRIT. 281 


apparently, at least,—the sweet blessing of the Spirit’s unc- 
tion. Yet it is a blessing which, however distinct from the 
common experience of average Christians, is within reach of 
them all. With this conception of what is meant by this 
unction from the Holy One, let us consider some of its char- 
acteristic signs and some of its significant effects. 

1. The first detail in reference to this gift which we en- 
counter in the teaching of the Scriptures about it, 1s 7s effect 
on the spiritual vision of the regenerate soul. ‘Ye have an 
unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” We 
have already seen that this is not the original creation of 
this capacity of spiritual vision; this is given in regenera- 
tion. It is the improvement of a power of vision already 
given, healing its diseases and giving vigor to its perceptions. 
The Holy Spirit was promised to those who were already 
his disciples, after the death of our Lord, ‘that he might take 
of the things of Christ and show them unto them.” This 
was not designed to furnish them with the inspiration pecu- 
liar to the twelve, but to lead their dull apprehensions into 
the full apprehension of the truths they already knew, and 
of those which should afterwards be taught them. The gift 
of’ inspiration was only necessary to them officially; the gift 
of understanding was equally essential to all other Chris- 
tians. It is the uniform teaching of the word of God, that 
the necessary effect of sin is to destroy spiritual life and all 
its particular manifestations—the power of spiritual percep- 
tion among others. The natural man knoweth not the 
things of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually dis- 
cerned. Consequently a certain measure of the Spirit’s in- 
fluence is indispensable to enable a man to see enough of 
these things of the Spirit to be saved at all. But he may be 
enabled to see enough of his sin to repent, and enough of 
Christ to trust in him, and yet be far from “knowing all 
things.” 

His spiritual life may be real and yet feeble; his spiritual 


282 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


life may be restored, and yet be weak in degree, and vacil- 
lating in exercise. It is a possible and an intensely desir- 
able thing to have this real, yet feeble, power of discernment 
made strong, clear, and stable in its energy. A high degree 
of this improved condition is what is meant by the expres- 
sion “knowing all things.” It certainly does not mean what 
it literally says; it does not confer omniscience, and make 
the ‘man a god; it is only to be construed as conferring a 
greatly improved capacity of spiritual intuition. Only this, 
but what an inexpressibly sweet and glorious blessing is this 
only gift! What a blessing is the power of physical vision, that 
glorious energy which unseals to us all the vast riches of the 
visible creation and their innumerable relations to the safety 
and comfort of life! None can appreciate it like the blind, 
who walk in one long-continued midnight, or the old, whose 
decay of sight, and whose memory of better days only 
brings out the more pathetically the losses involved in the 
decline of nature. But even more sorrowful, for greater 
losses are involved, is that spiritual blindness which shuts 
out entirely the revelations which lead to eternal life, or that 
incompetent discernment of these truths, which excludes their 
full power to lift the soul to the level of its promised expec- 
tations, and cheer it with all the riches of the heirship of 
God. The believer is measurably aware of this loss to him. 
What grief comes to him from imperfect vision! He sees 
dimly, but he sees enough to know the treasure which 
remains unseen in its full glory. He sees enough of his faith 
to hope it is the true fruit of the Spirit, but not enough to 
be unpresumptuously certain. He hardly knows whether he 
sees sin aright, or the plan of salvation, or the nature of re- 
pentance, or faith, or love, or hope. From this state of mind 
come all the anxieties of an unassured hope. He sees plainly 
that there are great defects in his views, and he knows not 
but what they may be fatal defects. He longs for clearness 
of vision. He knows that the Saviour of sinners is entitled 


THE UNCTION OF THE SPIRIT. 283 


to his best affections ; he longs so to love him; he is grieved 
and pained that he cannot love him as he ought to love him, 
and as he longs to love him. But, alas! his vision is so 
imperfect, he does not know whether he sees Christ as he 
wants to see him, or loves him as he desires to love him. 
It is a piteous case. How piteous is the condition of a 
blind husband and father, longing to see the dear faces of 
wife and children, yet cannot see them! He loves them, and 
the love in his heart is the very thing which gives poignancy 
to the sorrow of his disabled vision. Assuredly the heart 
that grieves because it cannot see Jesus, and do justice to 
his claims on the affections, does love him to a certain 
degree; but this dim and feeble eyesight in the lovers of the 
Lord robs them of infinite riches. They are surrounded by 
the unsearchable treasures of grace divine. An atonement 
full of power to give peace to conscience is before his eyes; 
but he cannot see it, or sees it so dimly that its power to remove 
his burden is shorn away, and he walks on bearing the 
intolerable load. Grace sufficient to secure him a sure en- 
trance into eternal life is pledged to him, but he sees it too 
imperfectly to receive it into his weary heart. The intinite 
love of God, the rich and full provisions of the covenant, 
the great and precious promises, the glorious doctrines, and 
the entrancing prospects of the gospel stand round him like 
radiant angels fresh from the empyrean heavens, but his dim 
eyes grope over the splendid company. A traveler with im- 
perfect vision is passing through a landscape, charming with 
forest and field; bright glancing streams are gliding through 
orchards and meadows, sweet with bloom and verdure; fair 
human homes are here and there dotting the landscape, and 
the cattle are browsing knee-deep in the lush grass; but the 
dim-eyed traveler sees nothing, and his heart receives no 
pleasure from all this wealth of beauty. He sees a little im- 
mediately about him, and in this he is better off than one 
who comes behind him totally sightless and dog-led through 


284 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


an endless night. But worse—far worse than either—is the 
soul, whether altogether blind or seeing but dimly, which 
passes through the sweet landscape of covenanted grace and 
sees nothing, or nothing clearly. That unction of the Spirit 
which would enable the weak-eyed saint to see the things of 
Christ as they really are would be an inestimable blessing. 
In this precious function of the Holy One there is a real 
remedy for this robbery by blindness and diseased vision of 
the peace and joy which are the rightful heritage of every 
believer. 

2. ‘Taking up the clue furnished by the metaphor of the 
text, we can advance further in the conception of the sig- 
nificance and value of the unction of the Holy Spirit. Z¢ 
brings comfort. It has long been a favorite luxury of the 
Eastern people to qualify the effects of their hot and exhaust- 
ing climate by the use of oil as a cosmetic and lubricant of 
the skin. The surface of the body, parched and dried by 
the appalling heat, could find no comfort equal to that pro- 
duced by the cooling and softening influence of friction with 
a soft and perfumed oil. The unction of the Spirit produces 
an analogous effect. Let it be borne in mind that it is an 
influence peculiar to the regenerate soul. In one stage of 
its experiences every such soul learns something, be it more 
or less, but something of the comfort of forgiven sin, some- 
thing of the peace of a yielding and subdued will. But a 
change is always impending, and when it comes, and the 
long struggle of the spiritual warfare with unbelief and the 
law of sin in the members takes the place of the former ex- 
periences of faith and submission, the contrast is specially 
painful. As the struggle goes on, the heat and weariness 
seem to grow more and more unbearable. If, now, in this 
crisis, a restorative could be applied to the fainting spirit of 
the faithful soldier ; if the sweet vision of the rest and peace 
of the past, and in a higher and more enduring measure 


THE UNCTION OF THE SPIRIT. 285 


could be restored, it is easy to understand the comfort which 
the unction of the Spirit will bring. 

The gospel is intrinsically full of joy; it is glad tidings of 
great joy; it is a flowing and full fountain of peace and 
hope. It only fails to reveal this priceless energy because 
the eyes are too dim to see it. This gladness of the gospel 
is powerful enough to assert its glorious energy in triumph 
over any form or degree of human grief, if only suitably com- 
prehended. But the eyes of the believer are so often weak 
with watching, or dim with long and bitter weeping, that they 
cannot see it. When the eve-salve of the Holy Spirit 
touches these injured organs they begin to know the things 
of Christ, and as the gracious influence strengthens the 
vision more and yet more, they begin to “know all things.” 
When guilt tortures conscience, the discernment of the real 
meaning and power of the great atonement will bring com- 
fort. When the consciousness of the real evil of a sinful 
heart afflicts, the vision of God’s strong and firmly covenanted 
grace will give comfort. When a sense of personal weak- 
ness comes along with a quickened apprehension of the 
awful weight of the issues to be determined, the vision of 
the Saviour’s absolute ability to save to the uttermost will 
bring comfort. The unction of the Spirit, giving clearness 
to the eyesight and softening the stony habit of the heart, 
cannot fail to flood the rejoicing soul with a current of joy 
and peace. No soul so lifted into spiritual elevation of 
pious affections can ever be unhappy. Zo be spiritually 
minded is life and peace. 

3. Another effect of the physical unction with the rich, 
perfumed oils of the East was a restoration of strength, vigor, 
and efficiency for any kind of work. The tired and heat- 
baked muscles were relaxed; the sinews were suppled; the 
oil sank to the bones, and lubricated the joints. A sense of 
renewed vigor floated through the nerves, and the refreshed 
and reinvigorated man was again ready for work or travel, 


286 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


for the toils of the field or the camp, or the more desperate 
exertions of pitched battle. Even so the unction of the 
Spirit renews the energy of the saints of God, for “the joy 
of the Lord is their strength,”—their strength to do and to 


suffer his will. Paralysis of Christian energy often comes. 


with the decay of Christian joy,—certainly and always dam- 
age to the best exertions of Christian energy. A stern fidelity 
may keep up a steady endeavor in a time of darkness and 
the eclipse of hope, and it is a noble display of faith and 
firmness when it does; but, nevertheless, the joy of the Lord 
is the best equipment of his servants to serve him. A Chris- 
tian soul, clear and bright with the unction of the Spirit, will 
undertake any allotted work with a vigor of joyous energy 
which will cower before no difficulty or peril. It will endure 
any trial without rebellion, or fainting in patience or in hope. 

4. As the result of this strengthening influence, the unction 
of the Spirit will not only increase usefulness, but it will add 
to the enjoyment and right use of other lawful and pleasing 
things. The regenerate soul is pronounced by the Master 
himself to be the salt of the earth. By prayer, by instruct- 
ing in the knowledge of the truth, by holy example, and by 
faithful use of appointed means, its useful and preservative 
influence goes out for the benefit of the world. This in- 
fluence will be healthful and effective in proportion to the 
degree of the grace that is in him. When the regenerate 
soul itself is suffering under any kind of spiritual impediment, 
its power for good is proportionably limited. But when the 
freedom and clearness which spring from the special unc- 
tion of the Spirit are infusing its joyous health and vigor 
through all the powers and graces of the regenerate nature, 
its influence for good is redoubled. When the prayers it 
offers are full of the unction of intense desire and ardent 
filial confidence in the promises and in the Saviour, they 
will have more power to prevail with God. When zeal is 
full of fervor, tempered with reverence towards God, and 


q 
; 
f 
f 
Q 


THE UNCTION OF THE SprIrir. 287 


with the tenderness of a real sympathy for sinners, the per- 
suasions employed will have a pathos and a melting force 
which cannot come from a regenerate soul not under this 
unction from on high. In every species of effort for the 
spread of the kingdom, the improved conditions of personal 
efficiency springing from the unction of the Spirit will tell - 
wonderfully on the usefulness of the servant of Christ. Yet 
another effect will follow: this joyous sunshine in the soul 
will shed an additional brightness of enjoyment over every 
other lawful source of delight. The days will be brighter; 
the rest of sleep will be sweeter; the flowers will bloom with 
more beauty; every joyous thing will be more joyous. Sweet 
prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers, instead of losing, 
will yield a richer sweetness to the anointed and rejoicing 
soul. 7 

5. The unction of the Spirit also exerts a beautifying in- 
fluence. The friction of the perfumed oil on the toil and 
heat-disfigured countenance restored its charms, not less 
than its energy and strength, when applied to the whole 
body. There is nothing ever seen on this strange world so 
beautiful as a human spirit full of the gracious cheerfulness 
and the tender sympathies of a regenerate heart under the 
unction of the Holy Ghost. Unregenerate men are often 
unattracted, nay, frequently, positively repelled, by the mani- 
festations of Christian character. The type of piety is so 
low as not to furnish a steady control of the conduct—not 
to govern the temper, or to master the selfishness, or to ani- 
mate the benevolent sympathies sufficiently to give a pleasing 
impression of real goodness. But under the unction from 
the Holy One there is an irresistible attraction developed in 
the character. The disposition grows so sweet and sunny, 
the temper so placid under provocation, the sympathies so 
quick and strong towards joy or sorrow, the judgments so 
charitable, the integrity so irresistibly trustworthy, the hand 
so generous, the heart so good, as to create a subduing charm 


288 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


even on ungodly men, and they will often say of such an 
anointed soul, “Would God I could be just such another!” 
But in the eyes of the saints, in the view of the angels, in 
the sight of a redeeming God rejoicing in the rich results of 
his redeeming grace, the loveliness of such a soul is sweeter 
than the flowers of Hden—more beautiful than the splendors 
of a morning in Paradise. It is, in truth, a miniature image 
of God’s own beauty. The grant of such grace on the part 
_ of the loving Lord of the covenant is, in one of its aspects, 
like Mary’s act when she broke the alabaster box of oint- 
ment on the head of Jesus—the token of a love stronger 
than death. 

6. The design and consequent effect of this unction of the 
Spirit is somewhat varied, but under every variation exhibits 
the one uniform and high value to be attached to all of its 
effects. In some cases it follows the example of the sister of 
Lazarus just mentioned: it is an anointment for burial. This 
rich gift of the Spirit to believers is sometimes the prelude 
to the added blessing—admission to heaven. It betokens in 
such cases a death of unutterable triumph. Happy is he 
who is anointed for his burial by the unction of the Spirit. 
But in many other cases, perhaps in the most of them, it 
follows more closely the analogy of the physical unction with 
the consecrated oil, from which its name is taken. Instead 
of an anointing for burial, it is an unction consecrating to 
some office to be actively discharged in this world. When 
the sacred oil was poured out on the head of one man, it set 
him apart as king over Israel; when poured on the head of 
another, it consecrated him as a priest of the sanctuary; on 
the head of another, it made him captain of the Lord’s host; 
and when poured on the head of another, it separated him 
as a prophet to proclaim the message of Jehovah to the 
princes and people of his covenant. No doubt it is now 
given sometimes to call and qualify particular persons to do 
a particular work of exemplary importance; but wherever it 


THe UNCTION OF THE Sprtrir. 289 


is given, it is only giving in those cases full, practical effect 
to a consecration which is really common and obligatory on 
all believers without exception. The saints are all conse- 
crated souls; they are all appointed to be prophets, priests, 
and kings unto God. They may fail to realize their appoint- 
ment to these grand functions, but they are nevertheless go 
appointed. The failure to develop functions so assigned, or 
the development of them on a scale so low as to obscure 
their real dignity and importance, cannot possibly abolish 
the functions assigned, or abate the obligation worthily to 
discharge them. They bind, although not recognized; they 
bind on every believer, under all possible changes of cir- 
cumstance. Livery regenerate soul is bound to be a prophet 
for God, to declare his will and make known his truth. He 
is bound to be a priest unto the Lord, consecrated to his 
service, offering sacrifices of holy self-denial, and making 
perpetual intercessions that his kingdom may come. He is 
bound to be a king unto God, ruling his own soul into obedi- 
ence and submission to all the divine will; and fighting unto 
the death, if need be, against his enemies, the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. This is the duty of all believers: but 
they who receive the unction of the Spirit, alone, to any 
practical or proper extent, comply with it. But when the 
consecrating oil of the anointing Spirit falls on the soul, 
filling it with the clearness, warmth, ardor, and joyous ten- 
derness of the unction of the Holy Ghost, then the prophets 
do begin to declare the will of the Lord ; the priests to make 
sacrifices, and to offer prevailing intercessions; the kings to 
combat his enemies, and the captains of the host to lead 
forth his armies to conquer the world. Then his priests are 
more glorious in the graces of the Spirit than Aaron in his 
snow-white linen robes and his breast-plate glowing with 
jewels. Then his prophets are greater in the truths they 
teach, and in the influence they wield, than the long-haired 
prophet on the banks of Jordan; or Isaiah, as he outvied 
19 


290 GIFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


Homer in his magnificent poetry; or Elijah, when he con- 
fronted the apostate king and his apostate people on the 
slopes of Carmel. Then his kings are more glorious than 
David in his armor on the field of Helam, or Solomon 
blazing in silk and gold on the throne of peacocks and lions. 
The unction of the Spirit carries a dignity and a grace, a 
power and a comfort, a beauty and a universal blessedness, 
which can be gained from no other source, and can be 
matched in worth by no other value. It fills the mind with 
clear light, because it. purges the visual energy with a 
“euphrasy and rue” of nobler virtue than the gardens of 
earth ever grew. It fills the heart with holy and rejoicing 
affections toward God and man. It kindles hope, until it 
rises like a column on which the sacred fires burn in imper- 
ishable brightness. It nerves the will with a heroic ardor. 
It fills the soul with intense desires, and with staunch and 
unpresumptuous confidence of their fulfilment. It breathes 
out in prayers full of tenderness and pathetic solicitude ; full 
of faith and trustful love. It guides the conduct with a pure 
zeal into all the mazes of a full and loving obedience. It 
moulds the whole character of the anointed man into a 
beautiful combination of serious pathos and exulting joy. 
It paints God on the soul. 


CHAPTER VIL 
THH WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 


“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the chil- 
dren of God.”—Paui to the Romans. 


HE witness of the Spirit, like the sealing and the unction 

of the Spirit, has a general and a special significance. 

Like them, too, the most marked interest of this action lies 
in its special manifestation. In its general sense, it refers to 
what the Spirit has done; in its special sense, it refers to a 
certain testimony borne by the Spirit to what he has done. 
The one refers to a work; the other, to a certificate or deposi- 
tion concerning it. The work of the Holy Spirit, in regen- 
eration and sanctification, is that which inwardly makes a 
child of God, and is, therefore, a testimony or proof of son- 
ship. But inasmuch as there is an essential difference 
between a thing and a testimony in reference to it, there is 
a difference between the regenerating and sanctifying influ- 
ences of the Spirit, on the one side, and the witness of the 
Spirit on the other. The witness of the Spirit, as described 
in the text of the chapter, is evidently a testimony to some- 
thing already done, and consequently cannot be confounded 
with it. The Spirit testifies to sonship, and this implies the 
previous existence of it. The sonship of the believer is two- 
fold: the legal relation created by adoption, and the per- 
sonal change created by regeneration. The act of adoption 
changes the legal status of a servant into the legal status of 
ason. Regeneration makes the personal change, which the 
change of the legal status has rendered necessary, and alters 
the affections and feelings of a rebellious servant into those 
of a son in full affection and friendship with a father. This 


is the correlation between regeneration and adoption, in 
291 


292, GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


making sinners into sons or children of God. But the wit- 
ness of the Spirit is something which comes after the grace 
of regeneration and the grace of adoption have done their 
work, and certifies it. We are, then, to understand by the 
witness of the Spirit a certain peculiar influence of the Holy 
Ghost, subsequent to his first saving work in the soul, giving 
assurance of its reality, and thus of all the glorious results 
which accompany and flow from it. 'The subject suggests for 
inquiry these particulars: what is the nature of this peculiar 
testimony ; on what conditions it is given in the soul; on what 
features of sonship it is exercised; and what are the effects 
produced by wt ? 

1. What, then, is the nature of this witness of the Holy 
Spirit? As distinct and different from regenerating grace, 
and, by consequence, from all the antecedent and successive 
manifestations connected with it, and as it is a testimony to 
sonship, the following discriminations may lead us forward 
to some conception of what it means. The teaching of the 
Scriptures in reference to it seems to settle these points. ret, 
It is a proving or certifying influence altogether. Second, It 
is said to be with our spirits. This implies that it is a testi- 
mony borne within the mind, not communicated to the mind 
from without. It is not an audible or visible sign transmitted 
from some external source, like those voices and visions, 
which, in the old prophetic periods, signalized and proved a 
communication from God. Third, This further suggests, 
that the direct or immediate object of this witness is that 
form of sonship which is registered in the mind; that is, to 
sonship as determined by regeneration. ourth, The ex- 
pression with our spirits implies something more than a 
simple internal operation; it implies an energy put forth in 
connection with another energy acting at the same time. It is 
an energy of the Holy Ghost, codperating with a certain 
co-existent and concurrent energy of our own spirits. The 
co-existent testimony of two witnesses upon the same point 


THE WITNESS OF THE SprTrir. 293 


to be proved implies activity in both; the exercise of two 
distinct energies, either directly or indirectly proceeding from 
intelligence and will. These four points furnish the guiding 
lines to the nature and operation of the witness of the 
Spirit. It is a testimony to sonship, a testimony within the 
mind, and consequently directly to that inward or subjective 
sonship wrought by regeneration, and indirectly to the legal 
sonship determined by adoption. It is a testimony of the 
Holy Ghost, and a testimony of our own spirits at the same 
time. The witness of the Spirit, then, may be defined as a 
certain clear and enlivening influence of the Holy Ghost, 
shining on the effects and evidences of regeneration as they 
appear in the exercise of these graces in a Christian heart, so 
as to make them clear and certain in the consciousness. 

The fact that the witness of the Spirit is not borne sepa- 
rately from the operations of the mind, bearing witness to 
the same point and at the same time, is‘a material item in 
the consideration of this subject. The witness of the Spirit 
rests upon the witness of our spirits as its basis. As the 
witness of the Spirit is to the effects and evidences of regen- 
eration, those effects and evidences must not only exist, but 
their existence must be disclosed by some degree of activity. 
The testimony of the Holy Ghost could not be given to 
things not existent or not discoverable. An illustration may 
be found in the connection of the text. The verse imme- 
diately preceding it is a description of the filial feeling in a 
regenerate human heart: “For ye have not received the 
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Then 
follows the assertion: “The Spirit beareth witness with our 
spirit, that we are the children of God.” It is evident that 
the existence of this filial spirit is the basis on which the 
witness of the Spirit to sonship is founded. His sweet and 
exhilarating testimony comes at the same time, and in con- 
current movement with the activity of the filial feeling. This 


294. GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


is a sample of the whole operation of the Spirit as a witness. 
He gives the graces, and excites them to activity, and then 
so illumines them as to give a joyful assurance of a true son- 
ship. The witness of the Spirit is, therefore, in the order 
of things, dependent on the activity of our spiritual graces. 
His witness to faith implies the existence and activity of 
faith. His witness to love implies the existence and activity 
of love. He witnesses the worth and value of obedience 
when obedience is rendered. It becomes very clear, then, 
that the witness of the Spirit is not to be expected in a care- 
less course of Christian living, or in a stupefied condition of 
the Christian graces. It is clear, that when Christians de- 
sire and pray for this wonderful grace, the witness of the 
infallible Spirit of God to the reality of their spiritual graces, 
they need not expect it when those graces are paralyzed. 
Our spirits must also testify; his witness is borne along 
with the witness of our own spirits, and not without or inde- 
pendent of them. 

It may be said, if the testimony of our spirits, the evi- 
dence of our own exercised graces, is present in the mind, we 
may infer the fact of our sonship from the facts in our con- 
sciousness, and will therefore need no special additional 
testimony from the Holy Ghost. But this ungrateful infer- 
ence is barred by several decisive considerations. The sacred 
record evidently implies the truth of both the codrdinated 
testimonies; it does not discount the truth or value of the 
witness of our spirits; but while it yields that testimony both 
true and valuable, it still asserts the inexpressible worth of 
the codrdinate testimony of the Holy Spirit. That value is 
vindicated by the following several facts : 

First, Tt is vindicated by the unquestionable fact in the 
history of the human mind, that feeling will not always obey 
the dictates of the understanding. A conclusion may be 
calmly reached by a process of reasoning, and yet no special 
exhilaration of feeling may follow it. It is possible, then, 


THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 295 


that even in cases where the evidences of regeneration are 
definite enough to warrant a strong inference as to the reality 
of the regenerate sonship, it will not follow by any means 
that the inference can be drawn with any special or notice- 
able measure of comfort. This is by no means an uncom- 
mon case. Old and experienced Christians are well aware, 
that while their judgments are reasonably content with the 
evidences of their hope, the feeling of decisive comfort in 
viewing those evidences is not always by any means pro- 
portionate to the strength of the convictions of their under- 
standing. They know they are as dependent on the influ- 
ences of the Holy Ghost for the ability to draw the inference 
comfortably to themselves, as they are for the appearance of 
the evidence in their consciousness. They may have a calm, 
rational, and scriptural conviction from the proof they see in 
themselves, and yet be far from finding any special joy or 
comfort, either in the facts or in the inference which they 
warrant. Their own spirits are testifying in such a case, 
but the Holy Ghost is not testifying with them. The value 
of his testimony under such circumstances is obvious 
enough. 

Second, It is also vindicated by the fact, that oftentimes 
the testimony of our own spirits to the reality of our regen- 
erate sonship, even when intrinsically very strong in proving 
power, is of such a sort as to bring obscurity upon the very 
fact which they prove. Strong intuitions of sin, though de- 
monstrative of gracious influence in saving measure, are 
almost sure for a time to obscure hope, and, it may be, break 
it down altogether. Afflictions, which are often proofs of 
sonship according to Paul in Hebrews, sometimes have the 
same effect. If in such cases the witness of the Spirit, 
shining clear on the submissive exercises of a tried regen- 
erate soul, and aiding the apprehension of the evidences of 
the nature of the trial, should codperate with the struggling 
heart, all this added sorrow from darkness and _ self-sus- 


296 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


picion would pass away. The value of his testimony is un- 
doubted. 

Third, The value of the Spirit’s testimony is vindicated 
also in all that large class of cases in which the evidences of 
regeneration are not very definitely outlined in the con- 
sciousness. We have hitherto proceeded on the supposition 
that these evidences were clear and strong, and endeavored 
to show the value of the Spirit’s witness, even where the 
testimony of our own spirits was clear or powerful. But in 
the majority of cases this is not true. The bulk of mankind 
are not very efficient students and judges of mental phe- 
nomena, and the perplexity of many Christians in judging 
the significance of their own exercises is not at all wonderful. 
Tf, now, these feeble and obscurely outlined evidences are 
yet exercised under the concurrent testimony of the Holy 
Ghost, their true significance will be brought to view. The 
witness of the Spirit is not dependent on the existence and 
exertion of strongly marked graces; it is dependent on the 
existence and exertion of the graces whether strong or weak. 
It is even more needed where the graces are weak, and when 
these are rightly brought into play it may be as truly ex- 
pected as where the witness of our spirits is more definitely 
given. The value of the Spirit’s witness in this class of 
cases, which probably includes the bulk of believers, is very 
clear. Its value in all its applications does not admit of a 
doubt. 

2. From this connection between the testimonial exercise 
of the graces in our own spirits and the witness of the Holy 
Ghost, we may infer the answer to the question, on what con- 
ditions this rejoicing testimony may be expected to rise in 
the soul? As it is dependent on the gracious activities of 
our own spirits, the conditions of its appearance are just the 
conditions which invite any other special favor of God. 
Intense desire, resolute purpose, patient and persevering 
prayer, careful living, unselfish zeal and devotion in God’s 


THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 297 


service, resistance to temptation and the overcoming of all 
evil impulses of thought or feeling, cultivation of every 
Christian sensibility, steadfast and trustful use of the means 
of grace—these are the conditions of success in secking 
special manifestation of divine favor, and for the witness of 
the Spirit among others. When these conditions are brought 
into play, they will necessarily place the activities of our 
own spirits in the state to receive the concurrent energies of 
the Holy Ghost bearing his witness that we are the children 
of God. Pain is as good a proof of life as pleasure, though 
not so agreeable a demonstration; and consequently the 
motions of our spirits in spiritual suffering may lay the 
foundation for his testimony just as truly as the more 
agreeable motions created by activity in obedience, or the 
happier conditions of the pleasure-giving graces. To the 
question, on what conditions the witness of the Spirit may 
be expected? we answer, it may be expected when the activity 
of our own spirits in the exercise of any Christian grace or 
sraces—egraces of action or suffering—is brought into exer- 
cise. To have the witness of the Spirit to our faith or love, . 
our faith and love must be in exercise. To have the witness 
of the Spirit to our patience and submission, our patience 
and submission must be in exercise. It is only with our 
spirits that his testimony is borne. To expect this gracious 
certifying influence to bear on any one grace, or on the 
reality of our piety as a whole, when our granted gifts are 
lying dormant, is unscriptural and not to be expected. Only 
on those general and special conditions on which any 
special favor, or any general advancement in the divine life 
may be looked for, is the witness of the Spirit to be antici- 
pated. 

It is a compulsory conclusion from this view of the subject, 
that this doctrine of the special witness of the Holy Spirit to 
the regenerate sonship of the believer lays no foundation 
for any fanatical or enthusiastic claims to special testimonies 


298 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


of acceptance with God, apart from godly obedience, and 
the personal experience of the ordinary sanctifying influ- 
ences and gifts of the Holy Ghost. The test, ‘by their fruits 
ye shall know them,” is to be applied to every enthusiast 
laying claim to special communications with God, as well 
as to every claimant of the Christian character. I the life 
and conduct are not such as to show the energy of sanctify- 
ing grace, operating on the springs of action within, no claims 
to the special testimonials of the Spirit can possibly assert 
themselves, simply because the witness of the Spirit is no- 
thing more than his certificate of graces existing and active 
in the human spirit. It is also clear that this priceless gift 
of the indwelling Spirit to the believer, like all other ex- 
pressions of divine favor, is not so placed as to give en- 
couragement to idleness, presumption, or personal indiffer- 
ence about the gift, but just the contrary. This peculiar 
certifying or demonstrative influence, bringing out into clear 
and definite shape the graces of the renewed heart, graces 
which are often, even when substantially sound, so obscurely 
outlined in the consciousness as to create an anxious un- 
certainty, is obviously a blessing of inexpressible value. 

3. It will not be difficult now to answer the third question 
touching the witness of the Spirit, on what points or charac- 
teristic features of sonship it is exerted in giving its delightful 
solution of spiritual difficulties? It may be noted that its 
bearing on the legal sonship created by adopting grace is 
altogether indirect, but no less important on that account. 

The sonship of the believer is created by two distinct fac- 
tors : the legal sonship determined by adoption into the family 
of God, affecting the relation of the believer to the law, and 
raising him from the position of a servant to the position of 
a son; and the personal sonship determined by regeneration, 
affecting the personal character and consciousness of the 
believer, and altering the affections and principles of his 
nature from those of a rebellious and hostile servant to 


THe WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 299 


those of an obedient and affectionate son. The proof of the 
legal sonship depends upon the prior manifestations of the 
regenerate sonship, and consequently the witness of the 
Spirit to the legal sonship is indirect, being mediated 
through his witness to the personal sonship. The witness 
of the Spirit, being within us, is directly concerned only with 
the evidences of regenerate sonship as they appear in the 
cifts and graces of regenerating grace. The answer to the 
question, on what features of sonship the testimony of the 
Spirit is employed is, that it is employed on every factor 
entering into sonship, indirectly on the sonship of adoption, 
and directly on every characteristic feeling and distinctive 
mark of a regenerate heart. It illuminates and brings out 
clearly the true nature of every feeling and affection, every 
hope and fear, every joy and sorrow, every fruit of the 
Spirit, every characteristic pain or pleasure, desire or aver- 
sion, of the regenerate nature. It illuminates the love of 
Christ, which is a mark of the renewed heart, and enables us 
to discriminate the mere veneration of a heroic example 
from the love which in a sin-stricken soul springs from ap- 
prehending him as the Lamb of God whose blood cleanseth 
from all sin. It illuminates the word of God, and discrimi- 
nates the love of the Scripture on account of its high intel- 
lectual merits, and the love of it for the truth which sanctifies 
unto eternal life. It illuminates the love of the kingdom, and 
discriminates the affections of a mere partisan from the 
affections which see in the church the chosen instrument 
for the deliverance of a dying world. 

The method of seeking the gracious testimony of the 
Spirit to the sonship of any individual soul is, to bring the 
particular graces into earnest, practical use, and seek in the 
use of the appointed ways for the influence of the Spirit to test 
their real character. There is a percentage of the feelings 
created by regenerating grace, and consequently demonstra- 
tive of a saving work, which are prevailingly painful. Saving 


300 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


intuitions of sin in the life, and sin in the heart are always 
distressing. The witness of the Spirit is so generally and 
truly regarded as a source of joy and comfort, that it is 
seldom thought of in connection with these painful experi- 
ences; his aid is not sought to enable a just discrimination 
of them; his testimony to penitence and the characteristic 
sorrows of the regenerate nature is not delivered; and this is 
probably one reason why the strange and touching paradox 
of Paul is so infrequently realized—rejoicing in tribulation— 
why there is so much suffering without any concurrent com- 
fort among Christians. These sufferings are often in them- 
selves the highest proofs of sonship; the nature of the af- 
fliction, as when we groan under the tyrannies of an unholy 
heart, and share in the spiritual trials of Christian souls, is 
full of testimonial power. In addition to this, not only the 
nature of the affliction sometimes, but the mental and spirit- 
ual exercises determined by any kind of affliction are fre- 
quently of clear testimony to the reality of sonship. If we 
endure chastening, God dealeth with us as sons. The sub- 
mission, patience, and unfaltering confidence in God’s wisdom 
and goodness, awakened by the touch of some deep and 
irreparable sorrow, are demonstrative proofs of regenerate 
sonship. Nay, more, the very feelings of resistance and 
rebellion against the chastening will of God may carry proof 
of the same grace ; they carry it, when they excite the disgust 
and horror of the heart, and rouse up a weeping and 
agonized, but resolute and persistent resistance to such im- 
peachments of the divine administration. But it is not easy, 
it is often impossible, for a Christian soul, under the strain 
and stress of this species of trial, to interpret them aright. 
Their spirits are bearing witness, but so bearing it, yielding 
testimony in such a shape, as to obscure its own significance 
and the real conclusion which it warrants and requires. 
Like a lighthouse on a stormy night, so covered by the 
rushing sea that all is dark although the light is burning. 


THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 301 


But if now the Spirit could be found bearing witness with 
their spirits, and interpreting the true nature of the testi- 
mony whose very vigor has marred their hope, all this would 
be changed. The light burning under the water-covered 
lamp would be seen and known to be truly kindled, though 
its beams are arrested for atime. The subjects of the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, being all the elements of sonship, afford a 
wide field for the employment of this illuminating grace, and 
the sonship of particular individuals may be demonstrated 
on many varying points. Any Christian perplexed to under- 
stand the complicated expression of his own religious state 
can have all his puzzles brought to a restful conclusion by 
seeking in the right way the witness of the Spirit. 

4, The last question raised touching the results of the wit- 
ness of the Spirit is easily answered. The object of the 
testimony is to prove sonship, and this object is always 
cvained. The assurance of hope is always a happy issue. 
As the witness of the Spirit works out its general demonstra- 
tion by testifying to a variety of particular graces which 
establish it, the resulting effects will present a great variety 
in their appearance. The Spirit may shine upon the graces 
bred by affliction, and prove his point with a peculiar com- 
bination of grief and comfort as the result. He may shine 
upon the perceptions and emotions leading to repentance, 
and prove his point by a similar combination of mixed emo- 
tions growing out of sin, analogous to those growing out of 
afflictions. He may shine upon a manifested exercise of love 
and holy consecration, and prove his point through a wonder- 
ful evolution of holy and rejoicing affections brought out into 
strong relief. The witness of the Spirit may thus produce 
widely varying appearances in the experience of different 
saints, but they all tend to one grand and joyful conclusion— 
proving them all to be the sons of God by the unimpeachable 
witness of the Holy Ghost. To each, no matter how dif- 
ferent may have been the special basis of the demonstration 


302 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


in the activities of his own spirit, that demonstration brings. 
the inexpressibly precious assurance of eternal life. The 
witness of the Spirit is to be relied upon absolutely. He 
does not deceive; he certifies no grace which is not true; 
he creates no hope which can be disappointed. A modest 
construction of his hope is wise, when a man’s own spirit is 
alone bearing testimony. The causes of a possible mis- 
guidance are so many and so powerful; the just discrimina- 
tion of consciousness is so difficult, even to very keen and 
practiced students of mental phenomena, and the bulk of 
mankind is so incompetent to judge; the experience of the 
vast majority of average Christians is so defective in sharp- 
ness and precision of outline,—it is by no means easy for our 
spirits to bear effective testimony. But where the witness of 
the Holy Spirit is borne along with a testimony intrinsically 
defective, where the sonship is yet real, all hesitation is out 
of place, and instead of a dictate of prudence, becomes a folly 
and asin. The witness of the Spirit yields absolute assur- 
ance; his testimony to his own work, to the graces implanted 
by his own hand, is resistless by the most self-mistrustful 
and self-jealous of timid souls. The faith of the heart, certi- 
fied by the witness of the Spirit, will become like the purged 
vision of the proto-martyr Stephen, and amid the confusion 
of the spiritual warfare will be able to see clearly into the 
very throne-room of heaven. Hope will spring high into the 
future, as the eagle strains his grand flight upward. Assur- 
ance of eternal life, peace of conscience, unfailing faith, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost are the results of the witness of the 
Spirit. 


CoH At ely Rie Velel 
THE HARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘“Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”—Paul to the 
Corinthians. 


N “earnest” was a part of a thing promised or pledged 

by contract, given at the present time as an assurance, 
pledge, or security, that the whole would be transferred at 
some period in the future. The design of the earnest was to 
secure the future, and thus to lay a reliable foundation for 
hope and confidence. The earnest given was also the pledge 
that the future balance to be paid should be of the very same 
kind with the earnest given. An earnest in a handful of the 
soil was the pledge that a land sale was assured of comple- 
tion; an earnest paid in money was a pledge of the balance 
in money; an earnest of silk or jewels, a pledge of a fuller 
payment in the same materials. Thus the earnest served 
two purposes: it guaranteed the debt, and defined the 
material in which it was to be paid. Thus a contract to pay 
a certain sum of money was unalterably ratified and con- 
firmed by the gift or transfer of a sum of it, large or small, 
in the presence of witnesses. This immediate payment was 
called an earnest of the debt. When land was sold, the 
seller took a handful of the soil and gave it to the buyer as 
an earnest of the sale, and after this action nothing could 
bar the right of the purchaser; he had received his “ earnest.” 
A striking sample of an earnest was found in the offering of 
the jirst-fruits, as they were called, on one of the three grand 
yearly feasts among the ancient Jews—the feast of Pente- 
cost. It occurred just at the time when the harvest was 
ready to be gathered. All Israel was collected in Jerusalem 


for a whole week of rejoicing and festive worship. On an 
303 


304 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


appointed day, a delegation of priests, followed by multi- 
tudes of people, rejoicing with song and shout and attitudes 
of delight, went out of the city to the nearest grain-fields, 
cut down a few sheaves of the crop, and brought them to the 
temple amid the wildest demonstrations of public joy. The 
sheaves were then solemnly offered in grateful worship to the 
Lord of the harvest. They were the earnest of the harvest, 
a pledge of bread again given to Israel for another year. 
The grain was then threshed from the offered sheaves, im- 
mediately ground into flour, baked into bread, and in this form 
re-offered before the altar and consumed in the sacred fires. 
Until the first-fruits of the harvest were thus presented before 
the great Giver of all, no one in all Israel could reap his 
grain, or turn it into bread. This unloosing of the restric- 
tions of the law was another cause of joy added to the 
general assurance of bread, which made the presentation of 
the first-fruits the occasion of the exhibition of the public 
joy so strikingly exhibited at the feast of Pentecost. These 
first-fruits gave occasion to a noble use of a metaphor by 
Paul to illustrate the introduction of believers into the church 
of God, from the example of the patriarchs, and the resur- 
rection of Christ as the proof and assurance of the resurrec- 
tion of the human race at large. “If the first-fruit be holy, 
the lump is also holy.” That is, the faith of the patriarchs, 
and their introduction by means of it into the covenant and 
kingdom of God, was the pledge and assurance of the same 
privileges to their descendants on the same conditions. 
“‘ Now is Christ risen ... and become the first-fruits of them 
that slept.” ‘Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are 
Christ’s at his coming.” In both cases the idea is the same, 
assurance for many in the future from the example of a few 
or of one in the present or the past. The reception of the 
patriarchs into covenant relations on account of their faith 
was the earnest of the acceptance of their posterity where 
they should believe. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth 


THE EARNEST OF THE Sprrtr. 305 


is the earnest of the resurrection of the whole human 
family. 

The Holy Spirit considered as an earnest presents us with 
the inquiries: what is the particular work of the Spirit which 
constitutes him an earnest, and gives the pledge of the future 
involved in an earnest; what is the full significance of this 
earnest of the Spirit; what are the things of which the Spirit 
is an earnest; and what are the logical and practical results 
of this earnest of the Spirit when given ? 

1. The first inquiry to be settled is, what is that work o yf 
the Holy Spirit which makes him an earnest, and carries with 
it that precious pledge and assurance of the future which it 
is the very nature and design of an earnest to convey? 
Much of the preliminary work of the Spirit in the human 
heart carries no pledge of any future work to be done by 
him. All the exercises of the heart, awakened by his deal- 
ings with an unconverted soul, are of this description. He 
awakens, and to a certain degree, convinces of sin before con- 
version ; but only too many lamentable instances prove that 
he is free to yield, if he pleases, to the resistance he invari- 
ably encounters. But the unqualified promise of salvation 
to faith introduces a new condition of things when faith is 
exercised. Then the soul enters into the covenant of the 
Lord; the pledge of actual salvation into which he has 
entered takes full effect. Faith is the fruit of the Spirit, and 
the gift of faith is the work of the Holy Ghost, which consti- 
tutes him an earnest with all its glorious assurances of the 
future. The gift of faith is only an expression of a broader 
gift which enables its exercise, and reveals the mode in 
which it is given, the impartation of the germ of spiritual 
life, and of all the particular spiritual graces, faith, hope, 
love, contrition, and others which grow out of this germ. 
Life must exist before the acts of life can be put forth ; but, 
inasmuch as regeneration is that energy of the Holy Ghost 
which gives this life, and makes a sinner personally a son 

20 


306 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


or child of God, it is in itself a demonstration of sonship, 
an earnest and a full pledge of eternal life, a perfect as- 
surance of the future. Regeneration and the faith which 
it enables close the covenant of infinite love, and assure its 
fulfilment. Previous to the work of the Spirit in granting 
faith and repentance—both the expressions of the new 
heart; one towards the Saviour, the other towards sin, his 
work in the heart carries no pledge and gives no security. 


But repentance and faith are the terms on which the pledge _ 


of salvation to the uttermost takes effect, and therefore re- 
generation, which inevitably grounds and issues in these 
terms, carries with it the earnest and pledge of eternal life. 
All those special acts of the Spirit subsequent to regeneration, 
the special forms of the grace of sealing, unction, and witness, 
constitute special manifestations of the earnest of the Spirit, 
and bring out its power of assurance into stronger lights. But 
he who has received the gift of regenerating grace, although 
he may never have enjoyed the favor and comfort of the 
higher and more marked forms of sealing, unction, and wit- 
ness, has, nevertheless, received the Spirit as an earnest. All 
the special acts of the Holy Ghost subsequent to regeneration, 
and designed to carry out the progressive work of sanctifica- 
tion, only renew the impression, embellish, illuminate, and 
develop the power to comfort in the earnest given in regen- 
eration, but the earnest itself is irrevocably given in regen- 


eration itself. Consequently, every regenerate soul, however 


unacquainted with the subsequent peculiar favors of the 


Comforter, does, nevertheless, possess the Spirit as an earnest. 


of eternal life. However feebly, if yet truly developed in 
the soul, repentance and faith are proofs of a regenerate heart, 
and a regenerate heart is proof of the earnest of the purchased 
possession. ‘T'he simple evidences of changed affections 
towards God and his manifested will, even though never 
followed by the higher and more inspiring special gifts of 


the blessed Paraclete, do, nevertheless, reveal him in propor- 


————— CO ee eee eee 


THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 307 


tion to their own clearness as the earnest and sure pledge 
of all the grand ultimate glory of eternal life. 

2. To appreciate the real value of the earnest of the Spirit 
as given to every regenerate soul, let us look at the second 
question suggested: What is the full significance of this 
earnest? It is all that any earnest ever was on any subject. 
The earnest given in payment of a debt guaranteed its 
payment. It was a full confession and acceptance of the 
obligation to pay the whole amount. No question as to the 
binding force of the unpaid part of the debt could ever be 
raised when the grant or payment of the earnest money had 
passed. No plea in any court could set aside a claim based 
upon an earnest. No dispute about a land-title could ever 
be raised when the actual gift of a handful of the soil from 
the seller to the buyer could be proved. No doubt could 
remain that the fields stood covered with the vegetable gold 
of the ripened harvest, when the officials of the temple, in 
their snowy robes, bore the first-fruit sheaves, lifted high to 
view, along the crowded streets of Jerusalem, and up into 
the courts of the Lord’s house. There was no room left for 
doubt. The earnest was given; it was palpable to the eyes 
of all, and none could hesitate to accept the assurance of 
the earnest; all knew that bread for the coming year was 
already given to Israel, already waved on the harvest 
fields. | 

As in matters of trade the earnest money avowed beyond 
recall the obligation to pay the debt, so does the earnest of 
the Spirit; God under covenant is in debt to his own honor 
to save the soul that has accepted his own terms. The gift 
of the Spirit in regeneration is the earnest of that debt, the 
beginning of its payment, the certain pledge of its ultimate 
redemption. The golden sheaf of faith is pledge that the 
whole golden harvest of saving grace is already provided. 

An earnest was a proof as well asa security. It settled the 
point for which it was given. It settled the obligation of debt, 


308 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


the title to land, and the assurance of harvest. The earnest 
the Spirit in like manner settles the question of personal salve 
tion; it is salvation already begun—salvation in part accom- 
plished. It is demonstrative proof of sonship, that personal 
sonship which carries and certifies the legal sonship. No mat- 
ter if a heart weary with struggle, and sick with doubt and hope 
deferred, can take no comfort in evidences of grace which 
satisfy others touching his state—evidences that would sat- 
isfy himself about the state of others—yet, if those evidences 
appear in the tests given in the Scriptures, the proof is 
demonstrative. Such evidences of conversion do not create 
mere presumptions, or establish a mere scale of probabili- 
ties; they create an absolute certainty ; they prove that an 
earnest has been given. That dread of sin, that grief for its 
prevalent power over the heart and life, that yearning after 
purity, that longing for Christ, that perpetual and welcome 
presence of God in all the thoughts, that delight and com- 
fort in the ordinances, cannot be mistaken; they prove the 
earnest of the Spirit, and the earnest of the Spirit proves the 
actual beginning and the certain title to eternal life. 

But, further, an earnest was a part of an indivisible whole, 
and he who possesses it has that assurance of ultimately 
possessing the whole which springs from actually possessing 
a part. The angler who has drawn the head of a fish above 
water knows that he also possesses the remainder of its 
body, although unseen as yet in the water. The rich man 
who is lifting a bag of gold out of his treasury, and already 
sees the top of it, knows he is drawing up the whole as well 
as the part which is in sight. The miner who is drawing up 
a chain from the dark depths of a mine knows he is lifting 
the unseen parts of the chain as well as the parts which are 
seen. So he who has the earnest of the Spirit need not 
simply or merely hope without assurance; he need not com- 
fort himself with mere probabilities, which may be truly 
called high and reasonable, but are only probabilities after 


THE EARNEST OF THE SPreit. 309 


ll. If he has an earnest, he is in an actual though partial 
sossession; a possession actual and real, although only in 
part. He has the earnest money in his hands, and although 
the coins may look worn, battered and unsightly, they are 
true money of the realm, and bind the payment of the rich 
balance in the end. He grasps the handful of the sacred 
soul, which carries the title to the land. He waves the 
golden sheaves cut from the field thick with the wide-spread- 
ing crop—an actual part of the priceless harvest. He who 
has an earnest has an actual possession. 

Yet, further, an earnest is not only an actual part of the 
whole in actual possession, but this part is given as a pledge, 
a legally designed and effective security of the as yet unpos- 
sessed remainder. It is easy to conceive a part given 
without any reference to any other portion of the thing 
given ; the granted part standing simply for itself. But sup- 
posing the law connected the part with the whole, and 
required the part to be given for the express purpose of 
securing the whole, then the law would secure the whole by 
the grant of the part. This was the intent and the effect of 
an earnest under the law or binding custom of the old Jews. 
The earnest, then, not only secured the right and title to the 
thing conveyed, but secured a provision to make it good. It 
provided security for the unpaid balance. It is easy to 
conceive a part of a promised sum as actually paid, yet 
carrying no assurance of the payment of the balance. The 
balance and main part of the debt may therefore fail from 
the bankruptcy or fraud of the debtor. But if the law re- 
quired that when the earnest money was paid, the remaining 
part of the debt should be absolutely provided for by a 
sufficient security, then the earnest would not only carry the 
title, but provide for securing it. The earnest would carry 
assurance for the future. The handful of soil may be con- 
ceived as given, and yet the seller as afterwards regretting 
the sale, and endeavoring to prevent the transfer; but if the 


310 Girts TO BELIEVERS. 


law of the land had definitely decreed that the earnest 
handful should carry an unrepealable and actual conveyance ; 
although immediate possession be not given, the sale stands 
beyond impeachment. The whole is as certain as the part; 
for that is the designed and legal effect of the part actually 
given. The whole public power of the Commonwealth 
guarantees the final possession to the purchaser. The 
earnest carries all with it, conveying not only title, but se- 
curity for the future payment; it is a positive and universal 
pledge covering all contingences, giving absolute assurance, 
forestalling all resistance and extinguishing all doubt. 

But this is not all the effect of the earnest in accomplish- 
ing that part of its design which consists in the guarantee of 
a debt. As a positive pledge and seal of assurance, ex- 
pressed by a thing given at the present time, is designed 
chiefly to affect the future, and by securing the future to 
extinguish fear, to enkindle hope strong and ardent, and 
thus not merely to secure the property of the receiver of the 
assurance, but his peace of mind. This view of the gracious 
design of the earnest of the Spirit is of inexpressible im- 
portance to the believer. Zhe grand aim of the earnest was 
to secure the future. The grand source of anxiety to the 
saint is for the future. However measurably content with 
the present, his fears for the future are the main causes of 
his anxieties now. He dreads the facts in the future, temp- 
tation, sin, his own weakness, death, judgment, the pre- 
sence of the scenery of the life to come, the face of the — 
angels, the unveiled glory of God’s almightiness. Lhe future 
is the sphere of the grand passions, hope and fear in the 
human heart. Both seem to be indelible instincts of a na- 
ture conditioned inexorably to emerge into the future. They 
are apparently imperishable indexes of immortality; signs 
fixed in the inextinguishable consciousness of a being es- 
sentially conditioned to live forever; buoys floating in cease- 
less agitation, yet fixed and stable on the tumultuous 


THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. rea 


motions of a deathless nature. The domination of the 
future is supreme. No matter what may be the conditions 
of existence at present, whether prosperous or adverse, the 
eyes of the human spirit are always bent upon the future. 
lf the future is uncertain or menacing, even a prosperous 
present is marred of its enjoyment. If the future can be 
assured as fortunate, even a trying present is lightened of 
its burden, and a happy present is doubled of its blessed- 
ness. The future is equally powerful over the past; the 
only thing which will heal the wounds of an unhappy past is 
the assurance of a happy future. To secure the future, then, 
is the grand demand of the human soul. But to do this with 
its full effects the future must be assured, absolutely assured. 
To create mere possibilities of good in the future; to create 
mere probabilities, however high and rational, will only an- 
swer a qualified purpose; will only qualify fear and kindle 
hope to a certain extent. Even this partial establishment 
of hope is valuable to a certain degree; but it cannot bring 
solid peace. The human heart, oppressed by its experiences 
in the past and its fears for the future, will cling to any 
fragment of hope, even when insecurely based, and in the 
words of the suffering Idumean possibly, “be confounded 
because it had hoped.” To induce a real, restful, and en- 
during hope the future must be assured, absolutely assured, 
on a basis which cannot be shaken or mistrusted. To give 
such an assurance of the future is the very end and purpose 
of an earnest in every various kind of business in which it 
is used. The earnest of the Spirit gives this assurance of 
the future in all that enters into the matter of salvation. 
He who is in possession of an earnest is not only in pos- 
session of a present and actual part of a value, but 1s also 
in possession of an assurance of the future. He who is 
in possession of the earnest of the Holy Ghost is in posses- 
sion of a sealed security of all the privileges of the sons of 
God, not only for the present, but for all the future. That 


Ble GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


future is eternal; it is pregnant with countless and illimita- 
ble changes; but in all the vast scale there is one thing 
which defies the power of change—the sonship guaranteed 
by the earnest of the Spirit. This lays a sure and unpre- 
sumptuous foundation for a genuine Christian hope. With- 
out it there is no sure basis for hope, and hope can only be 
a vague, vacillating, unassured, unconsolatory presumption. 
But upon it hope can kindle its beacon fires until they rise 
high in the vaulted skies, amid the thickest darkness of this 
earthly scene. 

3. To enable us to appreciate still more fully the value of 
the Spirit as an earnest of the purchased possession, we 
must find an answer to the third suggested question: what 
are the things or blessings of which the Spirit is an earnest ? 
To this the reply must be made in the most comprehensive 
terms, the earnest of the Spirit guarantees all the blessings 
of redeeming grace. But to follow the suggestions of Scrip- 
ture in their specializing of these blessings, we may first 
notice that the earnest gives assurance of a positive period of 
a full redemption. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” ‘Now 
he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath 
anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the 
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” “In whom also, after 
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the 
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of 
his glory.” The seal of the Spirit, as we have seen, has its 
general as well as its special significance. Under its special 
significance it refers to a special influence of the Spirit, 
giving a special degree of stability and staunchness to the 
exercises of the regenerate soul. In this sense it implies re- 
generation, and is distinct from it. In its general sense it 
carries the general significance of confirmation or security, 
and in this sense it is coincident with one of the chief sig- 


THe HARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. Bile 


nifications of the earnest of the Spirit. For this reason it is 
sometimes employed in the sacred record as identical, or at 
least a term interchangeable with earnest. It is so used in 
one of the passages just quoted. One glorious thing which 
is sealed and assured by the earnest of the Spirit is a fixed and 
certain day or period of complete redemption. A lost soul is 
sealed to a day of perdition, that is, it is assuredly bound 
over to certain destruction when the time arrives. A saved 
soul is bound over ¢o a day, or as that day is fixed for one 
part of that redemption, to-wit, the resurrection of the body 
to the day of redemption. Redemption is a purchased de- 
liverance; the term carries both notions, deliverance and 
deliverance by purchase, which grounds it in moral right, 
and thus adds to its certainty. Redemption from sin is such 
a deliverance from sin and all its deadly issues, from its 
power and its pollution, its hazards and its pains. This in- 
cludes the whole man, soul and body; sin has involved both, 
and both are involved in the redemption from sin. This re- 
demption is only begun in the forgiveness of sin, which 
removes the danger of its penalties, and in regeneration, 
which partially breaks its power and initiates the purgation 
of its pollution. But the redeemed soul is still left, for a. 
time, to the conflict with the remainders of evil in the heart, 
and to the disciplinary sufferings necessary to the process of 
purification. But the day of redemption will put an end to 
all this conflict and all this distress. It will put an end both 
to sin and suffering. In other words, the day of redemption 
means the day of deliverance to the soul from all the evils 
which are peculiar to the soul as distinguished from the 
body. But as sin has involved the body and subjected it to 
disease, deformity, and death, to all the evils of physical 
nature, the day of redemption is the day of deliverance also to 
the body. It involves deliverance from all the evils possible 
to the body itself, and from all the evils in the world to 
which man is related through his body. It implies a total 


314 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


change in the existing conditions of human life. The day of | 
redemption is the period of full release from all the ills to 
which flesh is heir. It is the period of serene and sinless 
peace for soul and body. It is the time of release from all 
care, all fear, all pain, all sickness, as well as from all pangs 
of conscience and from all sin. Nay, as sin has brought 
death into the world, and the body dies, or is dead because of 
sin, the day of redemption is the day of resurrection to the 
body. It is the time when the awful and apparently com- 
plete and unreversible victory of death shall be reversed, 
when the graves shall give back their dead, and the rejoicing 
heavens shall be filled with the rescued victims of sin and 
death. The day of redemption means a changed earth, a sin- 
less and happy human family, souls and bodies redeemed from 
the power of the curse, and fixed in eternal freedom from all 
evil, and from all fear or hazard of it. Such is the day of 
redemption of which the Spirit is the earnest, and as such 
the absolute seal and assurance. When given as an earnest 
in the gift of regeneration and faith, the Spirit breaks the 
power of sin and delivers from it in part, and this part 
given is the assurance of the grant of a deliverance which is 
complete, embracing soul and body, and enduring forever- 
more. 

In the second place, the earnest of the Spirit assures 
another thing inexpressibly glorious: 7¢¢ assures heaven to the 
regenerate soul. This is one consummate end and object of 
the earnest given. The record testifies that the earnest of 
the inheritance is given to serve until the actual redemption 
of the purchased possession. There must needs be an out- 
come, both in locality and character, to the forces and process 
of redemption. Man as a being of limited and localized ~ 
nature must have some particular place in which to exist. 
He cannot be in two places at once, and must therefore have 
some one place to be. The redemption from sin and suffer- 
ing necessitates a place where the conditions of sinless and 


Tor HARNEST OF THE SPIRIT. 315 


unsuffering existence are established. The Holy Scriptures 
reveal such a place as the final habitation of the just made 
perfect, and while designating it under various forms and 
names, principally describe it under the name heaven. 
Heaven then, in part at least, is a locality. But the earnest 
of the Spirit which is given in regeneration is designed to 
affect personal character, to create a holy nature, and thus 
to transform and perfect finally a moral change of an unholy 
nature. As an earnest of heaven, then, as a part of an 
answerable whole, the earnest of the Spirit proves that 
heaven is a character as well as a locality, and discloses the 
striking fact that the characteristic spirit of heaven is to be 
found, and is only to be found in the spirit, temper, and 
affections developed in regeneration. Under both of these 
aspects of locality and character, heaven is represented in 
the word of God as a place and state of existence inexpres- 
sibly glorious. Under its delineations of it as a local habita- 
tion, it represents it under the figure of a city, on the banks 
of a river, bordered with parks of noble fruit-bearing trees, 
built of jewels and gold, crowded with the mansions of 
the saints, within whose mighty walls no temple is seen 
thrusting its steeples and towers over the masses of its build- 
ings, because the whole place is one consecrated scene of 
holy service, over whose glowing structures no sunlight falls, 
on whose streets no pale moonbeam ever gleams on the 
thick-trodden gold, ‘‘embossed and ingrained with celestial 
roses,” where no night ever lets down its raven curtains to 
wrap the splendor in a passing gloom, where no sickness 
ever disturbs any home, no tears ever moisten any cheek, no 
species of evil ever darkens the serene and cloudless peace 
of the blest inhabitants. It has never entered into the heart 
of man to conceive the splendor of heaven as a place; its 
local coloring beggars description. 

Still more powerless is human thought to conceive the 
higher range of the spiritual and mental blessedness which 


316 GIFTs To BELIEVERS. 


God has prepared for those that love him. We only know 
that the same essential principles of obedience; the same 
feelings of love, gratitude, reverence, and delighted com- 
munion; the same confidence in the love of the Father, Son, 
and Spirit; the same delight in prayer and praise, in the 
word and worship of God; the same love to all who love 
him and bear his image, in a word, all the graces which are 
planted in germ in the regenerate soul by regenerating grace, 
which is the earnest of the Spirit, will be seen in heaven. 
These graces when exercised here, not only reveal the moral 
beauty of spiritual holinéss, but fill the heart with joy and 
peace. They also work another noble effect: they add fresh 
strength to the holy habit of mind from which they spring. 
All these results of spiritual graces, happiness, and growing 
strength, will be seen in heaven, and constitute its highest 
blessedness. The only difference will be a difference of 
degree, not of essential nature. Here the graces are weak, 
and often intermit their exercise, and the necessary result is. 
that their happy effects are proportionally weak and infrequent. 
There the graces are strong and perfect; they never intermit. 
their energy; and the happy effects are answerable in power 
and permanence. Oh! blessed object assured by the earnest 
of the Spirit—heaven—the home of an endless and perfected 
peace; the eternal dwelling-place of joy inexpressible and 
full of glory ; the immovable kingdom of holiness which is the: 
health of the immortal mind! 

Yet more, the earnest of the Spirit insures another bless- 
ing inexpressibly important from its instrumental bearing on 
all the high, ultimate issues of the promised redemption ; it 
insures all the intermediate gifts of grace which are neces- 
sary to secure the glorious result. An issue may be made 
contingent on any number of procuring causes. As a matter 
of course, to guarantee absolutely the attainment of the end, 
it will be indispensable to guarantee the successful procure- 
ment of each procuring cause. If this can be done, the end,, 


THe EARNEST OF THE SPtrit. Shy 


though conditioned and contingent, may be absolutely assured. 
Many procuring secondary causes are linked with the grand 
end certified by the earnest of the Holy Ghost. Faith, re- 
pentance, holy service of many kinds, prayer, self-denial, 
and consecrated devotion all bear upon the end, and without 
them the end cannot be gained. But when the earnest of 
the Spirit guarantees the end, it guarantees the means; the 
assurance of the end is the assurance of the means. No 
end dependent upon procuring agencies can be guaranteed 
except by the guarantee of the agencies with which it has 
been linked by the law. But grace all-sufficient is irre- 
vocably pledged in giving the earnest of the Spirit; the 
grand executive guarantee is given in that wonderful gift. 
The Father becomes the covenanted and treaty-bound Father 
of his adopted and regenerated sons. The Son rejoices to 
be the covenanted and treaty-bound Saviour of his trustful 
children. The Spirit becomes the covenanted and treaty- 
bound Paraclete of every saint whose sanctity he undertakes 
to achieve. Grace all-sufficient is pledged by the earnest of 
the Spirit. The declaration is positive concerning even the 
weak of the covenanted host: “He shall be holden up, for 
God is able to make him stand.” 

4, The answer to the fourth question, touching the effects of 
the earnest of the Spirit when developed in the consciousness, 
will complete our view of the value of this gift. 

In the first place, the earnest of the Spirit reveals to us 
the nature of heaven, as it had already done the fact of such a 
place and state. It discloses its characteristic spirit, its 
fundamental quality in the great controlling trait of spiritual | 
holiness. It thus reveals the insufficiency of all religious quali- 
fications for entry into that glorious citizenship, except those 
which are rooted in a regenerate nature. In the earnest a 
part is always given as a sample of the whole. In regenera- 
tion the germ of holiness is implanted, and all the graces, 
which are “the fruits of the Spirit,” are the outgrowths of 


318 ~ Gtrers To BELIEVERS. 


this germ, the results of the earnest. These fruits are the 
characteristic marks of the earnest part, and are, therefore, 
the characteristic marks of the guaranteed whole. Heaven 
is thus revealed to us in its essential nature as love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance. Every manifestation, then, of these graces is a 
proof of participation in the spirit of heaven, and conse- 
quently of a fitness for it. All the affections, all the works, 
all the characteristic exercises of a regenerate heart are as- 
surances of heaven. They prove a tele to it by proving a 
fitness for it; for the earnest is a pledge as well as a sample. 
No proof could be more irresistible of the absolute necessity 
of a regenerate and holy heart; heaven will be no heaven 
without it. As a locality it would be of all places the most 
oppressive, without the spirit which is congenial to it. How 
sweet is the assurance of heaven given to the humble be- 
liever by the earnest of the Spirit! It assures him that his 
humble graces, however feebly developed, carry the guaran- 
tees of his personal part in the heaven of the just; they are 
the earnest of that glorious whole, a part, a pledge, a sam- 
ple, a proof, a certificate which is made by the law of the 
institution to carry absolute assurance of that of which it is 
established as an earnest. 

Another effect designed to be the issue of an earnest, and 
effected by it in proportion to the clearness of its own real- 
ization, is hope. It will yield hope by its mastery of the 
future on a scale of degrees rising in combination with the 
witness of the Spirit to full and abiding assurance of per- 
sonal salvation. The earnest always carries the assurance 
in fact, butis not always suitably apprehended in the mind, and 
therefore does not always yield the effect of the truth which 
it certifies. But when no obstruction in the mind impedes 
its power, it will create in the consciousness the assurance 
which it carries in itself. The earnest unimpeded will breed 
a hope full of immortality. Another effect is comfort and 


THE EaRNEST OF THE SPrRrIr. 319 


peace of mind, assurance of the future logically grounds 
comfort, and when truly apprehended inevitably breeds it. 
Another effect is strength—strength to do and to suffer; to 
exert activity; to develop patience; to deny self, and to 
serve others; to overcome evil, and to walk worthy of the 
Lord in all pleasing. It creates absolute safety. 

5. The crowning blessing in the earnest of the Spirit zs 
the earnest given, which is the loving and most Holy Spirit 
himself. It was noted in the beginning of this exposition 
that an earnest accomplished two purposes: it secured a 
debt, and defined the material in which it was to be paid. 
The earnest as a part of a whole was a specimen of the 
whole, a sample of that which was promised. An earnest 
paid in a handful of soil indicated a payment in land; an 
earnest paid in gold pledged a full payment in gold; an 
earnest in silk or jewels, a larger transfer of the same rich 
materials. But an earnest given of the Holy Spirit of God 
is positively the highest of all gifts. It is the richest of all 
the blessings in the hands of the rich Lord of the universe. 
Having given his Son to redeem, and himself to be the 
Father and Portion of his people, he had only one more oft 
of equal value to bestow. When this was given it com- 
pleted the grand gift of his whole self to his redeemed crea- 
ture. In point of actual fact, the gift of the Spirit as an 
earnest carries with it the gift of the Son as a Saviour, and 
the gift of the Father in all the blessedness of his glorious 
restored fatherhood. But the gift of the Spirit as an earnest, 
a part as a sample and pledge of a whole, raises our hopes | 
and conceptions into a region where they are confused and 
lost in the immeasurable prospect of glory, honor, and im- 
mortal life. Even as a mere earnest, a mere fragment of the 
good to come, the grace of the ever-blessed Spirit is literally 
infinite. He is given in all his infinite power and wisdom 
and goodness; the riches, the freedom, and the tenderness of 
his patient and pitying love, as he dwells in the human 


320 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


heart, and struggles to subdue its evils, are positively unsearch- 
able. Even as a mere earnest, he is the richest gift in the 
treasury of heaven. What the whole is, of which such a gilt 
is only a part, no tongue can tell. It suggests gifts of the 
Spirit in the long sweep of a blest eternity granted endlessly, 
in forms no mortal mind can conceive, no mortal tongue can 
even begin to describe. The Spirit as an earnest of the 
purchased possession guarantees eternal life to all to whom 
he is so given. 


CEA BIE Ra Var ie, 
THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘“‘For aS many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of 
God.”—Pawul to the Romans. 


LL parts of the work of grace in the human heart are 
adjusted to all those destructive effects of sin which it 

is designed to remove, and, at the same time, it is adjusted to 
_the essential nature of the being in whom the gracious en- 
ergy is to be exerted. Man is essentially an active being; 
active in all the processes of his intellectual nature, in all 
the affections of his will, and in all the actions of his con- 
duct. This activity is essential and unalterable; it abides, 
no matter what changes take place in the moral complexion 
of his energies; he is active in holiness, if his moral quality 
is holy ; he is active in evil, if his moral nature is evil; he 
is active in both good and evil, if his moral nature is under a 
progressive and unfinished process of redemption from sin. 
All his active energies have been affected by moral evil, and 
the enterprise of redeeming him from sin necessarily requires 
the delivering influence to be exerted upon them all. This 
influence must be exerted in accordance with the essential 
nature of each one of the energies he undertakes to purify 
and govern; he exerts no compulsory power in the sense of 
actual force; he does not overbear or oppress any energy 
with which he deals; he does not interfere with the native 
and essential quality of any one of them all. Asin the witness 
of the Spirit, it is a testimony borne with an influence con- 
currently exerted along with a similar testimonial activity of 
the human spirit, to prove sonship to God. In the inaspira- 
tion of the Scriptures, the influence of the Spirit is so ex- 

21 d21 


322 GiFts TO BELIEVERS. 


erted along with the activity of the human spirit employed, 
that the peculiar mental quality of the instrument is im- 
pressed upon the message delivered, as well as the higher 
stamp of the higher intelligence engaged. This rule is re- 
garded in all the dealings of grace with the unregenerate 
and regenerate soul. This influence, thus limited when ex- 
erted on the positive activities of the human energies, is 
. what is meant by the leading of the Spirit. As these ener- 
gies are deadened by the influence of sin, they need a stimu- 
lating influence of saving grace. As they are enfeebled, 
they need a communication of vigor, sufficient to bring them 
up to their appointed work. As they are affected both by 
ignorance and blindness, they need an enlightening and a 
guiding influence. As in themselves active, this guidance, 
instruction, and quickening is to be exerted in the way of 
leading them in the search, and not by way of force or com- 
pulsion. Leading implies a corresponding and cotempora- 
neous motion. The leading of a little child implies some 
movement on the part of the child; the guidance of a blind 
man implies movement on his part. In the leading of the 
Spirit, as in all the motions of delivering grace, the essential 
nature of man is respected, and while grace is always effica- 
cious to accomplish its purposes, it always works in accord ~ 
with the law of the nature it deals with. The leading of the 
Spirit, then, we understand to be the influence which he exerts 
in guiding all the active powers of the man to the right dis- 
charge of all his appointed functions. | 

Leading may be accomplished in several ways. It may 
be accomplished by going before and showing the way, as 
where a guide is employed to lead an army through an un- 
known country, or a stranger along unknown paths. It may 
be accomplished by taking hold of the hand of a little child, 
or by supporting the strength of a blind or feeble person 
unable to go safely without the aid of positive contact with 
more available strength and vision. It may be accomplished. 


THe LEADING oF THE SPIRIT. 323 


by a glance of the eye, or a gesture of the hand, when the 
needed direction is more properly given by a silent sign than 
by open command. It may be accomplished, finally, as the 
commander of an army leads his forces by determining and 
commanding all their movements. These differing forms or 
degrees of leadership are determined in part by the nature 
of that which is to be guided, or by the greater or legs 
degree of the necessity for guidance. In like manner the 
leading of the Spirit may take a variety of forms, according 
to the varying necessities of those whom he leads. A shep- 
herd will carry the lambs in his bosom, and gently lead those 
which are with young, but he will walk before an adult flock 
with more unhesitating and less restrained decision. As 
when training untrained sheep, he will keep closer and more 
constantly with them, and use more decisive measures to 
train them, he will guide the flock when trained, by mere 
gestures or calls from a distance, and with less, because 
now unnecessary, painstaking and solicitous management. 
Just so with the leadership of the Spirit. He will guide the 
young, the feeble, the weary, and the sorrowful with more 
direct and tender communications of his grace. He will 
guide the wayward, untrained, and disobedient with severity 
if needful. He will guide the experienced and veteran sub- 
jects of his grace with the glance of his eye, and find it 
sufficient. These are the general characteristics of the lead- 
ing of the Spirit. But to become more specific: 

1. As the Spirit leads all the activities of the human soul, 
the intellect, the will, and the outward conduct, he leads the 
understanding into the knowledge of the truth as God has 
revealed it. He does this not merely as having given the 
revelation of the Scriptures, but when that record is given, 
he is equally necessary to guide into the knowledge of the 
truth revealed in it. This he does in two ways, yielding 
each a different kind of knowledge: one giving a more or less 
accurate intellectual discernment of the truth revealed, and 


B24 Gurts To BELIEVERS. 


necessary to soundness and orthodoxy of religious opinion, 
the other giving that spiritual apprehension of the true sig- 
nificance of truths already known and avowed, which is 
necessary to personal salvation. 

Touching the first of these two kinds of knowledge, the 
right intellectual apprehension of the truth in the Bible, the 
leading of the Spirit is always necessary, and can never be 
ignored or neglected without a serious hazard of departing 
from the faith. The truths of the Bible are like the truths 
of any broad system, somewhat subject to accident. Lord 
Bacon says: “There is something accidental in the knowing 
of all truth.” A dozen men may look at a field, or a house, | 
or a tree, and each one will see something in it which the - 
others do not see. That which leads each one to see what_ 
he sees and.the others do not see is what Bacon means by 
the accidental in knowledge. A hundred thinkers before 
his day had seen and appreciated the principle of induction 
from observed facts, which that great thinker established as 
the basis of that grand philosophy of fruit, as he called it, 
which has resulted in all the wonderful discoveries and in- 
ventions of modern times. In fact, every human being from 
the age of infancy to maturity of years and reason has acted 
consciously or unconsciously upon the principle. But Bacon 
saw something in it which no one else had ever seen in it 
before, and hence the wonderfully controlling and fruitful 
use which he made of it. His insight of it is a sample of 
his maxim touching the accidental in thought. It is so with 
the truth of the Bible. One interpreter will be absorbed by 
one truth as he sees it, and fails to see how it is qualified by 
another truth as seen by another interpreter. Hence he 
disputes the existence of the truth he does not see, or appre- 
hends it as inconsistent with the truth he does see. This is 
one mode in which men of equal abilities and equal good- 
ness will be found holding different creeds, all based upon 
the Scriptures. There is yet another cause involving more 


Tue LEADING OF THE SprrRIit. 325 


of moral responsibility than the one just illustrated, which 
results in this same division of sentiment. The human heart 
affected by sin has a profound influence on the views of the 
understanding; the transparent glass, colored with red or 
gold, will give its own colors to whatever is seen through 
it. From these two causes we may see the necessity for the 
leadership of the Spirit as a euide even to the intellectual 
knowledge of the truth. His guidance is all-important to 
control that accidental quality in knowing which leads one 
to apprehend a force of truth in an idea which another does 
not see in it. His guidance is all-important in controlling 
those regulating colors which are transfused through the 
whole field of the intellect by the moral tastes and affections 
which fill the heart. No body of Christians in any branch 
of the church are ever safe from the danger of departing 
from their creed, when they cease to recognize the perpetual 
necessity of the leading of the Spirit. The great Protestant 
formula asserted against the assumption of power in the 
Roman Catholic Church to decide all issues of Christian 
truth by authority—the Bible alone is the religion of Pro- 
testants—is true in one sense and not true in another. It is 
true in affirming that all revealed truth is contained in the 
Bible, and that it is to be found nowhere else; it is true in 
asserting the right of all men to search the Scriptures, 
because they are one of the means of grace appointed of 
God to lead to salvation. But it is not true, if taken to 
exclude the necessity of the Spirit to lead the individual 
mind in the search of the Scriptures. The great principle 
of evangelical Protestant Christianity is two-fold in form: 
the Bible, alone, as the text-book of faith, and the leadership 
of the Spirit as the principal teacher. The wreck of the 
Presbyterian creed in Geneva a century ago, and in Holland 
at the present time, resulting in the shameless expulsion of 
all real adherents to that creed which has been accepted by 
all the agents in this cruel tergiversation, is a striking proof 


SUG Girts To BELIEVERS. 


of the perpetual need of the leading of the Spirit in retain- 
ing even the intellectual knowledge and. hold of the truth. 
This leadership is all the more necessary to that other 
species of the knowledge of the truth which alone yields its 
saving benefit. This form of apprehending the truth is that 
which is alluded to by Paul, when he speaks of it as “ spirit- 
ually discerned.” The natural man cannot so discern it. 
This species of intuition is a gift of the Holy Ghost, and to 
gain it his leadership is indispensable. The assertion of 
this form of knowledge is considered mystical by some, and 
positively fanatical by others, but it is as purely rational and 
common-sense a distinction as the difference which exists in 
the knowledge that fire will burn in one who is actually feel- 
ing it burn, and one who is not feeling it, but simply knows 
that it will burn. It is the simple difference between the 
knowledge which is lodged in the understanding and mem- 
ory, and that knowledge which exists in a felt experience or 
in an existing consciousness. In the one, the knowledge is 
the simple apprehension of a truth; in the other, it is a liv- 
ing intuition of the real force and meaning of it. Sin ap- 
prehended in the one form of knowledge may be fully 
received as a theoretical evil of enormous magnitude; but 
this apprehension of it will lead to no personal concern on 
account of it. Sin apprehended in the other form of know- 
ledge will be felt as a personal implication in guilt and dan- 
ger, and will lead at once to intense personal solicitude on 
account of it. Christ apprehended under the one form of 
knowledge may be truly accepted as a Saviour of men, as a 
mere truth of history; apprehended under the other form of 
knowledge he will be received as a Saviour, personally ac- 
cepted and trusted. One may know that the view from the 
top of a mountain is surpassingly beautiful; one who ac- 
tually stands upon its summit actually sees what the other 
merely knows, but does not see. The difference in the two 
forms of knowledge is neither mystical nor fanatical. Itis 


————e 


THe LEADING OF THE SPIRIt. ; ie 


the office of the Holy Spirit to take of the things of Christ 
and show them unto us. Under this species of living intui- 
tion all that grand grace which makes the gospel glad tidings 
of great joy can only be apprehended under his leading of 
our powers of perception. David prayed, “Lead me in thy 
truth, and teach me”; and if any man ever hopes to be 
furnished with that intuitive insight into the truth, which is 
the saving knowledge of Christ, he must make the same 
prayer in all earnestness and patient waiting upon God. If 
any Christian ever hopes to reach any high or joyous views 
of the greatness and perfect adaptation of gospel grace to his 
own and the souls of others, he must seek the special leading 
of the Spirit. Let it be remembered that leading implies 
activity and movement on the part of the led, as well as on 
the part of the leader. He who seeks to rise into these high 
and exhilarating views of the gladness of the gospel must 
give himself to the effort to comprehend them, while he 
appeals at the same time to the leadership of the Spirit to 
guide him into adequate conceptions. When the Spirit is 
leading the intellectual activities of the soul, whether in the 
intellectual or spiritual apprehension of the truth, he re- 
quires the concurrent activity of the intellectual and spiritual 
intuitions of the soul. He leads, but does not carry; he 
stimulates, aids, gives needful help, and demands the reso- 
lute forth-putting of all our powers, and the active use of all 
his previous gifts. He rewards no indifference; he warrants 
no idleness; he pays no premium on spiritual laziness. The 
rewards of clear and steadfast vision, the real apprehension 
of what he leads us to see of the greatness of the glad gospel 
of grace, will be an infinite recompense of all the labor and 
self-denial which conducts us up on this spiritual Pisgah, and 
opens to our view the wide, rich landscape over which it looks. 

The Spirit also leads the energies of affection in the re- 
generate heart, as well as the activities of the intellect, and 
thus proves sonship. All those affections are his gift; they 


328 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


are implanted in regeneration. They are established then 
in germ; in an infant, but indestructible form; they are the 
bulb-roots of an eternal life. But they are dependent on the 
same gracious agent who implanted them to lead them into 
light on the surface, and to guide the spreading of their ever- 
increasing stem and branches. This familiar truth, the con- 
stant and never intermitted dependence of the regenerate 
soul on the living grace of God for the health and growth of 
its graces, is not apprehended as it should be. It ought to 
be used with a sharp and definite application every day of 
the Christian’s sojourn in this scene of preparation. In the 
sad consciousness of feeble, it may be of invisible, growth in 
any grace of faith, hope, patience, gentleness, fervor of sym- 
pathy, gratitude ‘or zeal, the first step to be taken is an 
instant appeal to and for the leadership of the Spirit; he is 
always ready; the Father is always ready; more ready to 
give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, than earthly 
parents are to give good gifts unto their children. The 
Saviour, the great High Priest, never abdicates his loving 
priestly function, and is always ready to intercede for the 
grant of the Spirit. Nor shall we ever grasp the real 
strength of the case until we are able to do justice to the 
Spirit himself; until our conceptions of the love of the Spirit, 
his delight in his work, the unsearchable depth of the free- 
ness and fullness of his grace, are suitably enlarged. He 
solicits our appeal to him; he is ready to lead us forward; 
he is waiting to be gracious. He delights to stir up the soul 
to a genuine hunger after spiritual blessings. He delights 
in kindling the spirit of intense desire in the heart—that 
spirit of prayer which will ery day and night at the throne 
of grace. He likes to strengthen faith, to develope love, to 
make staunch the spirit of obedience, to put down selfish- 
ness, to waken those wide sympathies for lost men which lead 
to self-denial and ardent efforts to save them. He delights to 
spread joy and peace in the soul, and to fill it with the bright~- 


THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT. 329 


ness of the sweet spring morning of a revived and animated 
piety. But he calls upon us to let him lead us. He calls 
upon us to show our desires for these rich spiritual bless- 
ings, and he works at the death-like torpor of our worldliness 
that he may lead us forward to the needful activities of 
spiritual desire, in order that through these activities he 
may lead us further still into richer and more abundant 
erace. 

There is nothing in our relation to the leading of the 
Spirit to make us think, when we are in a state of conscious 
spiritual torpor that we must wait for a special motion on 
his part before we begin to call upon him. The written law 
is a perpetual prescription and definition of our duty; any 
desire, however feeble, to come up to the discharge of it shows 
the first tender leading touch of the Holy Spirit on our 
hearts. All affections which are led out in the heart by the 
Holy Spirit will conform to the characteristics of true spirit- 
ual affections laid down in the word of God. All false or 
fanatical religious affections; fierce and uncharitable zeal; 
the disposition to coerce; the eagerness which overruns pru- 
dence and breaks conformity to prescribed duty; all disregard 
of decency and order in the worship of God, are not led out 
by the Spirit of God. They consequently do not prove son- 
ship, while those which are led by the Spirit are unquestion- 
able proofs of it. If, then, there is any motion of desire for 
the improvement of any one or all the affections of a regen- 
erate heart, let us remember and resort to the leadership of 
the Holy Ghost. No matter how feeble, and consequently 
how doubtful, the affection itself, or the impulse to better it 
may be, apply to the Spirit to guide it right and lead it for- 
ward. As the shepherd led gently the feeble ones of the 
flock, so the Spirit of all grace will not despise the weakest 
of motions towards himself, and the ends he is working to 
gain. He will not quench the smoking flax; nor break the 
bruised reed. He will lead if the Christian soul will follow. 


330 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


The impulse to follow is itself from him, and he will not 
despise his own gift or mar the purpose for which he gives 
it. We may appeal to him to give us the impulse, to lead it 
forward through every degree of desire to fixed purpose, to 
replenish all: the energies he excites, and ever steadily to 
lead onward from resolve to attainment, and from one attain- 
ment to another, until thus growing in grace we arrive at the 
stature of full-grown men in Christ Jesus. We are never 
straitened in his offices any more than we are in the grace of 
the Son, or in the infinite fatherly affections of the Father. 
Tf we are straitened at all, we are straitened only in our own 
souls. If any Christian heart is oppressed with the state of 
his own graces, and longs for better things, that longing is 
proof that the Spirit is leading—drawing him by the hand, 
and pointing to the sunshine on the distant hills, and saying, 
Come, let us go out of these dark, chilly spots on the narrow 
way, into a higher and more cheering place. Let him lead 
you; it is always safe to go wherever he shows the way. 

3. The leading of the Spirit extends to the actions of the 
regenerate child of God also. Action is the final and irre-— 
versible expression of all moral energy, good or bad. It 
begins with desire; it ripens into positive volition or deter- 
mined purpose; and at every stage of manifested will before it 
passes over into action, it is capable of change; its direction 
may be altered. But when it passes into action it is fixed for- 
ever; and the responsibility which has accompanied every 
previous expression of will is carried to its highest expres- 
sion by rearching its final and unalterable form. For these 
two reasons, the fixation of the fact, and the development of 
responsibility into its highest and immutable shape by the 
actual doing of an act, it becomes of the last importance that 
all positive actions should be well guided and determined. 
Actions in the course of coming into being often need good 
and effectual aid and guidance, in order to secure their being 
so performed as to meet and accomplish the end for which 


Tur LEADING OF THE SPIRIT. SOL 


they are done. The leading of the Spirit, then, as made 
available in all our conduct, is a blessing inexpressibly great 
and valuable. It may be looked and asked for in everything 
which may rightfully be done. In all the duties of life, no 
matter how purely secular the matter of the duty may be, we 
may seek for it; for duty is only another name for the will 
and law of God. We have no right to do anything which 
we cannot ask God to help us do, and to bless us in doing. 
Where the Spirit leads we may safely go, and where we may 
go the Spirit may lead. All that we may lawfully omit or 
refuse to do, we may seek the leading of the Spirit in so 
refusing ; and if we cannot ask him to lead and sanction our 
negative action, we have no right to refuse to act. No omis- 
sion of any duty, no evasion of any just obligation, can 
possibly be led by the Holy Ghost. All acts, of whatever 
kind, in which he may lead, will be wisely done, and will 
bear the scrutiny of the final Judge. 

All such acts will determine a responsibility which may 
be safely encountered. All the results and consequences . 
legitimately attributable to such acts will be sound and 
wholesome in themselves and need not be dreaded. To any 
mind suitably impressed with the awfulness of accomplished 
facts, with the unchangeableness of the facts themselves, 
with the uncontrollableness of their influences, with the in- 
delible nature of the responsibility they create, this cove- 
nanted provision of the Holy Spirit as an available leader in 
action constitutes one of the richest provisions made in the 
covenant of grace. As such we may seek his guidance in 
every stage of the action, in the original contemplation of it, 
in the determinate purpose to attempt it, in devising the 
means to effect it, in the execution of the act itself, and in 
securing the happy consequences that flow from it. Itisa 
glorious privilege to have such a guide and helper. We only 
forfeit our right to seek and expect his leading when the 
action is faulty in itself, in the motives which actuate it, or 


Sou GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


in the unhappy consequences which inevitably flow out of 
the act itself, or may be perverted out of it by the weak in 
faith when needlessly done. We have no right to seek or 
expect his guidance in any weak or foolish action, the test 
of which as such is to be found in the principles or precepts 
of the written word, and not in the mere prejudices or pas- 
sions of the natural mind. These remarks define the leader- 
ship of the Spirit in the personal actions of individual 
men; but it is equally available and equally necessary to 
safety in the public actions of organized bodies, and espe- 
cially of the church of God. Statesmen and legislators, the 
rulers and counsellors of all organic bodies of every sort, are 
not independent of divine counsel, nor released from the obli- 
gation to seek it. This is always recognized earnestly in times. 
of public calamity. A celebrated Swedish statesman once 
sent his son on a tour of travel through various countries 
and courts of Europe, not merely for the purpose of giving a 
liberal finish to his education, but especially that he might. 
see with what a small amount of wisdom the world was gov- 
erned. The need of divine guidance in this dearth of fore- 
sight is obvious. The very same defect is to be seen in the 
courts and councils of the church. These courts are com- 
posed of men with all the deficiencies which attach to the 
wisest, and those which more seriously attach to those who. 
are not the wisest; and while consultation and the compari- 
son of views will be pretty sure to raise the counsel taken 
higher than the wisdom of the average individual member, 
it will not naturally rise above the level of the controlling 
minds. 

The history of the church in its best development is full 
of proofs of the necessity for a perpetual and wise leading 
influence within and over its best human counsels. It is an 
inexpressible blessing that the leading of the Spirit is avail- 
able to the courts and parliaments of the kingdom. This 
guiding influence is a totally different thing from that claim 


THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT. ooo 


to infallible guidance which is the distinction and disgrace 
of the great Roman apostasy. It is analogous in character 
with his leadership of individual men, with no more and no 
less of infallibility in it, effective to.secure salvation, yet 
giving no guarantee of universal doctrinal correctness of 
religious opinion. There may be true Christians, yet hold- 
ing different views of points not essential to personal salva- 
tion. The pledge to them is guidance into the truth 
necessary to save them, not into absolute completeness and 
inerrancy in the knowledge of all the truth revealed. In 
like manner there may be safe guidance in the counsels and 
testimonies of the organized church, without absolute and 
universal infallibility. In all the parliaments of the church 
human energies are in motion as well as the leading of the 
Spirit, and will stand accountable for the mistakes that may 
be mingled with conclusions on the whole sound and salu- 
tary. Though not securing infallible accuracy and wisdom, 
the influences of the Spirit are available for invaluable 
results in the councils of the kingdom. Every combined 
effort of any particular congregation, or of any part of it, 
ought to recognize, with earnest and patient application for 
his aid, the leadership of the Spirit. Otherwise, such a 
practical declaration of independence of his assistance will 
be apt to result in disappointment or absolute failure. His 
leading in anything, whether of individual or organized ac- 
tion, gives the best securities possible; it shows he is taking 
part init. With such a leader, and justin proportion to the 
fulness of his intervention, there will be comfortable assur- 
ance of right and safe guidance, and of an answerable suc- 
cess. 


OF 1-1 nad Ml a I @ 
THH INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘‘ Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what 
we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”—Pawl to the Romans. 


[tae or uae is a leading element in prayer, and often 
stands for the whole of it. Strictly construed, it is that 
part of prayer in which he who prays offers petitions for 
others than himself. It is an interposition, a mediation or 
going-between, in which one asks'favor for persons or inter- 
ests distinct from himself, or his own immediate concerns. 
It is a part of the duty of prayer as it is defined for us in 
the word of God; while permitted and commanded to pray 
for ourselves we are required to pray for others. Interces- 
sion is not only a part of ordinary prayer, but one of the 
grand functions of an official priesthood; and one of the 
sweetest and most encouraging aspects in which our Lord 
is presented to our confidence, is that in which he is repre- 
sented as praying for us at the Father’s throne. Christ ig 
commonly recognized as a being to be prayed to, but is not 
so fully recognized as a praying being himself, praying for 
us. This priestly intercession of the great High Priest is the 
combination in his prayers of a plea of his own official work, 
with a petition grounded upon it, that the favor of the Father 
may be bestowed on those for whom he prays. The Holy 
Spirit is also an intercessor for us; but his intercession 
differs from both the intercession of the great Priest of the 
covenant, and the ordinary prayers of the human petitioner. 
Originating in the same grace as the intervention of the 
Mediator, and aiming at the same gracious’end, it is not a 


plea based upon what he has done for us, but a present work 
3384 


a ag 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE Spretrr. $85. 


done in us. Unlike the priest in the heavenly sanctuary, 
and unlike the human petitioner, who both present their 
personal petitions in their own persons, he does not offer his 
own petitions in his own person, nor appear directly before 
the throne. His intercession is indirect; he exerts an in- 
fluence upon us to enable us to pray aright, to show us our 
need, to kindle our desires, and to enable us to pray in faith. 
His influence is thus all-powerful in securing answers to 
prayer. His intervention in prayer is all-important; without 
it we not only pray without effect, but our prayers become 
fresh forms of offence, and constitute a new reason why they 
should not be ahswered. We must “pray in the Spirit.” 
The teaching of the apostle is very plain; he unequivocally 
says: “We know not what to pray for as we ought”; and it 
ison“ that very account, and to prevent the disappointment 
which would grow out of misguided and incompetent prayers, 
that the Spirit is given to help our infirmities, and to make 
intercession for us “with groanings which cannot be uttered.” 
He is consequently called the Spirit of grace and supplica- 
tions. ‘This control over the prayers of men is one of the 
chief functions assigned him in the economy of redemption. 
One passage assigns to him the control over the matter of all 
acceptable prayer. The manner of acceptable prayer, the 
earnestness, the reverence, the patience, and the confiding 
spirit, is equally dependent upon him; for we know not how 
we should pray, any more than we know what we should 
pray for as we ought. Christ taught, saying: “After this 
manner, therefore, pray ye”; but the influence of the Spirit 
is necessary, after we are intellectually instructed by the 
lessons and examples set forth in the Scriptures touching 
the manner of prayer, to enable us actually to pray after this 
manner. We are equally taught by the word of God what 
we should pray for; we are then informed of the real neces- 
sities of our souls; yet we are dependent on the Holy Spirit 
to enable us to see and realize these wants in our own con- 


336 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


sciousness and as a part of our own personal states before 
we can really feel the need, and so really pray for the supply 
of the want. The Father must be worshipped in spirit and 
in truth. Prayer must embody genuine activities of our 
whole spiritual being, genuine mental apprehensions of our 
real case, and genuine desires of our hearts for the relief 
that is needful. To enable us to offer true and heartfelt 
petitions from sin and danger, it is not enough to know the 
bare fact of our being sinners, and therefore in peril of vio- 
lated law, because it has been stated to us; we must know it 
in our consciousness. The awakening and convicting infiu- 
ences of the Holy Ghost are indispensable to give this con- 
scious, personal knowledge. He must open the understanding 
to see, and touch the heart that we may feel, or else we shall 
never be able to pray as we ought. This is the general 
ground on which our dependence on the Spirit as the Spirit of 
grace and supplication is rested in the Scriptures. But to 
be more specific, let us look first, at the mutter of prayer as 
the Spirit controls it, and then at the manner of it as de- 
veloped by him. 

1. The matter of all prayer suitable to fallen beings is 
defined for us in the word of God. All our necessities are 
there explained, all our privileges and warranted hopes are 
there described. The whole state of case of a moral and re- 
sponsible agent who has sinned against God is expounded. 
The effect of sin in determining guilt, depravity, and danger 
is explained. His exposure to temptation; his peril under 
it; his weakness to resist it; his utter inability to deliver 
himself from his sin; his subtle and invincible aversion to be 
really saved and separated from the sin he loves so well—all 
these are exposed to view. The way of relief provided for 
him, and all its exquisite adjustments to his condition, are 
made known to him. His privileges under the covenant, his 
duties, and the provisions made to enable him to discharge 
them, are revealed. Under such instruction developed in 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. TG 31) 


the Scriptures, and in the preaching of the gospel, it is alto- 
gether possible for a man to have a general and well-defined 
intellectual knowledge of his spiritual condition on the same 
terms and in the same way in which he may gain any other 
kind of knowledge on any other subject, and without any 
special influence of the Spirit. But this knowledge, remain- 
ing in this form will do him no good; it will awaken no sen- 
sibility, kindle no desire, determine no purpose, excite to no 
action. It will lie in the mind as mere knowledge, and, remain- 
ing so, will only heighten the danger by increasing responsi- 
bility without doing any saving good whatever. It will not 
lead to prayer at all; the mind will not recognize the need of 
prayer, because it does not personally recognize any want 
nor feel any desire to supply it. These items of knowledge 
touching the spiritual condition détermined in every trans- 
eressor by his sin must pass into consciousness; they must 
be known to be true in the realized experience of personal 
standing as well asin the Bible. They must be recognized 
as facts as well as mere zdeas, as personal qualities as well 
as general characteristics of human nature, or prayer, gen- 
uine prayer, is impossible. Here, then, is the first necessity 
for the influences of the Spirit; and the change of mere ab- 
stract intellectual knowledge into personal convictions is the 
first preliminary work of the Spirit as entercessor. He be- 
gins to teach man the secret of prayer by opening his eyes 
to see his real wants. He is in danger, but he does not see 
it; all looks safe and full of hope; and he goes on careless 
and gay-spirited, as one who treads a flower-strewed, but 
rotten bridge over some awful chasm, unnoticed and dis- 
regarded in view of the apparently safe and beautiful pass- 
age-way over it. When the Spirit begins his work as inter- 
cessor he reveals the danger; and this is called the awaken- 
ing of the Spirit. But the transgressor is not merely in 
danger; he is guilty; he has sinned, and sin necessarily 
involves criminality as well as danger; but the sinner is as 
22 


338 GIFTS TO: BELIEVERS. © 


blind to this feature of his condition as he was to the other. 
Consequently, although allowing in a general way, as a mere 
abstract, but by no means pressing or poignant personal 
truth, that he is a sinner, he is not moved by it. He is 
conscious of much rectitude; his motives are good; his im- 
pulses are generous; his principles are honorable; his sym- 
pathies are kindly; his tastes are refined; his personal and 
social affections are amiable; and he feels that on the whole 
he is a good man. His ways are cleanin his own eyes. He 
does not see any sin, but a good deal of righteousness in his 
whole character. God is to him a mere idea, true, indeed, 
and important in its bearings on the laws and interests of 
society, but a mere abstraction, not a living person with 
claims to personal affections, to gratitude for kindness, to 
love for his personal excellencies, to reverence for his in- 
finite greatness, and to obedience on account of his sacred 
right to command. He is conscious of some uneasiness 
and fear towards God at times; but as a rule God is not 
in all his thoughts; he lives without him and feels no need 
of him or his favor. Death and the transit into another 
life seem to be immeasurably far off, and are never real- 
ized as certain events in the personal future. No real 
prayer can come from a soul in such a state; the only 
prayer possible to it is a mere formal offering, a duty 
done under some sentimental view of a social propriety, or 
possibly of a general and ill-defined personal relation, whose 
claims can be fully satisfied by a formal and occasional re- 
cognition of them. But when the Spirit begins his work 
as intercessor he opens the mind to the consciousness of 
sin to a greater or less degree; he convinces of sin and 
righteousness and judgment to come; and this office is 
called the conviction of the Spirit. This conviction may exist 
on a scale of degrees running up from a low and feeble 
intuition of personal criminality to the most awful and tragi- 
cal apprehensions of personal guiltiness. But whatever may 


THE INVERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 309 
be the degree of this conviction, when it comes to such a 
soul as we have just described, as clean in his own eyes, all 
is now changed. His easy self-complacence is now gone; 
he has become conscious of sin. His feeling of self-right- 
eousness, though not exterminated altogether, has received a 
deadly wound, and leaves the field of consciousness to be 
occupied by strange apprehensions of personal criminality 
walking hand in hand with menacing apprehensions of per- 
sonal danger. The feelings are now roused in proportion to 
the energies of the awakening and convictive influences 
exerted ; fears begin to fly abroad; anxieties as to the future 
begin to emerge. Then a different kind of prayer from that 
easy formal offering. just alluded to will begin to stir in the 
soul. A cry, selfish, and as such impure, but startling in its 
earnestness, will begin to rise in the silence of the heart. 
Remorse, or a selfish repentance, what the apostle calls 
the sorrow of the world that worketh death, begins to work, 
and effectually disposes of the easy and complacent state 
of the unawakened and self-righteous heart. The praying 
now done is often even tragically eager and importunate. 
But this sorrow of the world is not the genuine repentance 
which brings pardon and safety. Flashes of self-righteous 
feeling will now and then break out of the cloud of convic- 
tion and remorse—a feeling that God ought to show mercy, 
and is either unjust, unkind, or unfaithful to his word, if he 
does not show it. Bitter, rebellious, hard, and blaspheming 
thoughts now come thronging to the front, and aggravate 
well-nigh to madness the partial consciousness of sin, and 
the more effective sense of danger which exasperate the 
struggle of the stricken heart. Prayer will then come in 
good earnest; the last trace of indifference vanishes; and a 
cry comes up as out of the belly of hell. But it is not yet 
the prayer that the prayer of a guilty soul, seeking the mercy 
and grace of an offended God, ought to be; it will still be 
fierce, complaining, bitterly anxious, yet bitterly rebellious. 


340 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


Then the Spirit leads forward, and if he never does this, all 
is lost. Up to this point, we see only the effects of the 
awakening and conviction that precede regeneration and 
true repentance. The repentance so far developed, although 
it may rise to even a tragical degree of remorse, though often 
fatally misconstrued as the repentance which is unto life, is, 
nevertheless, all selfish, mere remorse and sorrow of the 
world which is unto death. All may stop here, and short of 
eternal life; the remorseful soul may go back to receive a 
double damnation in the end. But if the Holy Spirit in his 
work as intercessor leads forward, and begins to teach how 
to pray as we ought, he will give a deeper and truer view of 
sin than that which breeds this passionate but unavailing 
kind of’ remorseful praying. He opens the eyes to see how 
wicked this state of feeling, and this kind of praying really 
are. He makes us see more fully what sin really is—a thing 
that justly forfeits the favor of God—that justly exposes to 
his wrath. He fills the heart with the feeling that it deserves to 
be. rejected, that it hangs suspended simply on the grace, the 
sovereign and distinguishing grace of God, that it can neither 
by its own strength comply with the terms on which pardon is 
_ promised, nor compel God to enable the soul to comply with 
it. Then the proud heart becomes humbled; it is content 
to submit to God; it becomes willing for God to determine 
the case; and as the Spirit leads still forward it begins to 
trust God to determine it safely for him. Then comes the 
broad and joyful apprehension that salvation is really the 
free cift of God; that faith and repentance, “true belief 
and true repentance, every grace that brings us nigh,” are 
all his free and gracious gifts. In this altered and most 
happy mood, the prayer that comes from this advanced work 
of the Spirit as intercessor is wholly altered; it becomes 
humble and hopeful supplication: sin is confessed; God is 
felt to be injured by it; the plea for mercy looks away from 
self and all that self has been trying to do to obtain mercy, 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 341 


and joyfully apprehends that mercy is free; that grace is all- 
sufficient; that Jehovah, Jesus, is himself the Saviour of 
sinners. The Holy Spirit has at last taught the soul what 
to pray for, and how to pray as it ought. The way in which 
he does it is by a successive and progressive opening of the 
eyes to see the real condition and necessities of the soul. 

2. The Spirit maketh intercession for us and teaches us to 
pray as we ought, by enkindling and controlling the desires of 
the heart. Prayer is the offering up of our desires unto God, 
and the nature and the force of the prayer will be deter- 
mined by the nature and the energy of the desires embodied 
init. Ifthe desires are selfish, the prayer will be selfish; if 
the desires are holy, the prayer will be holy; if the desires are 
feeble, the prayer will be feeble; and if the desires are strong 
and intense, the prayer will wear the same characteristics. 
It is obvious, then, that the desires must be coutrolled, if the 
prayer is to be regulated. Nothing can more powerfully 
illustrate the necessity for the Spirit as an intercessor to in- 
dite our petitions for us than this essential fact in the nature 
of prayer. The human heart is full of evil; its affections 
have been corrupted by sin; and no true or honest desire 
after a holy salvation can spring up in it unless the Holy 
Spirit gives it. There needs no special influence of the 
Spirit to make men wiliing to escape the penal consequences 
of sin, except, perhaps, in cases of extraordinary depravity ; 
the natural principles of hope and fear will ensure that result. 
Selfishness will determine desire in all matters in which self 
is concerned, whether in view of danger or the bitter power 
in sin itself to create sorrow. A man may be terribly op- 
pressed by a sin, by the power of a destructive, sinful habit, 
or by the strength of an evil impulse, and yet be purely 
selfish in it. He is oppressed because he feels he is in- 
jured by it; yet that feeling of dread towards his sin may 
have no more moral merit in it than a man’s anxiety to be 
rid of toothache or neuralgia. 


342 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


A man may selfishly desire to be holy, not because he 
likes it, for if he likes it he himself is holy and not selfish ;_ 
but because holiness conditions heaven, and he knows that 
without it he cannot see God. This fact is enough to make 
us all pause and ponder with intense self-scrutiny the state 
of our hearts; even the most mature and veteran of regen- 
erate souls may well be startled into watchfulness when the 
deceitfulness of the heart is brought into remembrance. Are 
our desires after the salvation of God what they ought to be? 
Are our prayers, after all, only embodiments of selfishness? 
If not altogether so, may there not be an element of selfish- 
ness in them, which may possibly account, in part at least, 
for so many defeats in prayer? May not our very desire for 
the salvation of sinners be tainted with selfishness, as when 
we desire it to gratify a partisan attachment to our own 
church, and outshine a sister denomination? If our desires 
are substantially sound, are they truly regulated in degree? 
Are they strong enough to overcome our reluctance, our 
laziness, our love of money, our pride, our resentments, our 
love of ease and self-indulgence? These questions may 
make us set more value on the Spirit as an intercessor; for 
che can remove all defects in our desires, and thus elevate the 
character and increase the power of our prayers. It is right 
that we should seek with all earnestness our own salvation ; 
the desire to escape the penalty of sin is a desire altogether 
legitimate, and the distinct consciousness of such a desire 
does by no means per se discount the integrity of our wish to 
be saved. But is this the only reason why we seek for 
grace? Is there not something in the very essence of sin, a 
criminality in its nature, that, independent of its penal 
hazards, would make every right heart revolt at it, and rejoice 
to be delivered from it? But surely, however trying may 
be the perplexity created by the effort to discriminate justly 
the mixture of motive in our religious experience, it is a 
matter of infinite comfort to know that the Spirit in his in- 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 343 


tercessory work takes charge of the desires of his own people, 
and insures so much of a pure element in them as to make 
their prayers effective. He regulates the degrees as well as 
the nature of these desires; and those groanings which can- 
not be uttered are simply the strong yearnings of a regen- 
erate soul after spiritual advancements, for which it longs 
intensely, although unable to give adequate expression to the 
desire, or adequate description to the blessings desired. 

3. The Spirit makes intercession for the saints, and thus 
teaches them to pray as they ought by regulating the motives 
with which they pray. These often hinder the answer of 
prayer; we ask and receive not, because we ask amiss, that 
we may consume it upon our lusts, that is to say, in a gen- 
eralized form of expression, that we may serve selfish ends; 
for example, when we pray for the salvation of sinners that 
we may get credit, that our church may be praised, that our 
anxieties for particular persons may be eased. Also when 
we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit that we may be 
assured of our personal salvation merely to have less trouble. 
Also when we ask for this blessing or that, that we may be 
spared some trial, or may gratify some prejudice, or win some 
advantage. All these motives terminate on self, and damage 
the efficiency of prayer. Yet a certain regard to self well- 
being is right, and the subtle mixture of allowable and un- 
allowable self-regard is hard for us to discriminate or 
manage, and makes the intercessory function of the blessed 
Spirit in regulating the motives and spirit of our prayers all 
the more precious. To him we ought incessantly to refer 
all our motives and desires, that he may control them. A 
jealous watch upon our apparently most holy and religious 
acts is wise; for without his gracious influence we cannot 
think a thought or indulge a desire which is not in some 
way more or less tainted by the unholy mind and the unholy 
heart from which they spring. He makes intercession for 
us according to the will of God. Our guide in prayer is the 


344 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


written word, and whatever object is warranted by the pre- 
cepts, examples, or general instruction of the word, we may 
pray for boldly under the guidance of the Spirit of grace 
and supplications. 

4. The Spirit teaches us to pray by opening the way of 
acceptance to our understandings, and enabling the exercise 
of faith. Faith is his gift, and, when given, its exercise ought 
always to be under his guidance. We always need his 
illumination on the plan of salvation. Now it is so plain and 
clear, and Christ as a Saviour seems so completely sufficient, 
we are filled with peace. “Then a cloud sweeps over all, and 
the whole way of salvation becomes as mysterious as it 
seemed when we were first struggling to understand and 
embrace it. Sometimes the promises do so flush with a 
hidden glory of priceless value, and seem so great and 
precious, we feel as if we had come into possession of a 
talisman richer than the magic formula in the Eastern story, 
which unlocked the chambers of the earth’s hidden wealth, 
and laid the vast masses of ruby and diamond open to the 
eye. Then the inner glory of them seems to die out, and we 
gaze on them as on blank orders for an infinite treasure, and 
they become empty of all power to strengthen or comfort us. 
It is expressly said, if we pray not in faith, let no man expect 
anything of God. Those words often sound like a knell of 
hope; yet they invite us to trust in a living love and power 
back of the promises, and as worthy of our confidence as the 
promises themselves, though they do challenge our trust on 
a basis stronger than the pillowed firmament—the truth of 
the stainless and infinite God. How sweet to know that the 
Spirit, as the Spirit of grace and supplication, is also the 
giver of faith. How sweet to know when we are perplexed 
how to handle the promises; how to confide in them; how 
far to expect and when to look for their fulfilment; for what 
objects to plead them; how to be kept from any abuse of 
them, in the way of presumption on the one side, or of too 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRit. 345 


little expectation on the other; how sweet to know that the 
Spirit may guide our petitions, as well as give the faith which 
lays bold on the sure words of promise. He opens to us the 
significance of the priesthood of Christ, and unseals that 
glorious refuge of a sinful and sin-oppressed soul, the sacri- 
fice and the interceding prayers which give assurance of 
forgiveness! The intercessions of the Spirit carry. the gift 
of faith in the Saviour, and secure all the pledges of the 
covenant. 

5. The Spirit teaches us what to pray for by opening up 
to us the significance and the mighty power of the pleas by 
which we may urge our petitions. We often feel as if we 
would give anything for a plea so powerful as to secure what 
we ask. The pleas which are given us are the most power- 
ful which even the vast power of the infinite God could give. 
They are pleas whose acceptance is pledged to our faith 
beforehand. They are never pleaded in vain. If they fail 
in securing the very thing we asf, it is due to some misuse 
upon our own part, and the security against that misuse is. 
the intercession of the Spirit. They never fail in securing 
the very thing which we need. He always intercedes accord- 
ing to the will of God; and every petition which he creates 
in the soul goes into the censer of the great High Priest, 
and is offered with his endorsement before the throne, and 
him the Father heareth always. Look at some of the pleas 
which are given us to plead in prayer. The plea of the 
blood of Jesus; who can estimate its power? It has shaken 
the kingdom of darkness until its vast foundation stones are 
split wide open, and the awful structure is tottering to its 
fall. It has quenched the wrath of God against a sinning 
world. It has redeemed millions upon millions of immortal 
sinning souls. It has loosened the bonds of law and justice 
which bound the arm of God’s almightiness, and set it free to 
work for the redemption of the world. It has impoverished 
hell; it has enriched heaven a thousand-fold ; it moves the: 


346 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


Father’s heart as no other power ever has or can move it’ 
it has moved his just wrath out of the way and given place 
to the free movement of his infinite grace to sinners; it will 
ground a sure hope of pardon and eternal life, more fully than 
the solid earth would ground the gossamer weight of a bee’s 
wing. Then take the plea of the love of God—the fatherhood 
of the Father, the love of the Son, and the grace of the Holy 
Spirit—what a plea is this! Unexhausted by all that it has 
done for the salvation of man, that wonderful love which 
originated, executed, and now applies the wonderful provi- 
sions of the covenant, still stands back of all this executed 
wealth of mercy, as mighty, as free, as solicitous to bless, as 
before its glorious achievement was done, undiminished and 
undiminishable! The appeal to a loving human heart is 
always full of power; yet it may fail. An appeal to the love 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is measured in its 
strength by the infinite tenderness to which it appeals. 
Who can estimate the power of the plea in the love of God! 
There is yet another plea to support our petitions, in the 
glory of God. Once only possible of manifestation in the 
upholding of righteous law and in the punishment of evil 
doers, his wisdom has worked with such infinite reach of 
skilful contrivance, that now both his personal glory, and 
the honor of his law, can be actually magnified in the eternal 
salvation of sinning creatures. If there was any demand 
involved in the plea for pardon, for any eclipse of the glory of 
God, there conld not be and there ought not to be any power 
in the plea; but so far from this, his glory, which is nothing 
but the display of his infinite excellence, is great in the salva- | 
tion of sinners; made greater than in any display of it ever 
made, or that can ever be made. We ask no sacrifice of 
feeling or right on the part of God, when we plead for par- 
don now; on the contrary, we ask God to magnify his glory, 
to do athing which carries with it the achievement of another 
result in which the whole Godhood finds an infinite and most 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 347 


worthy delight. When the Spirit, interceding in us, opens 
up the power of the great gospel pleas, the vilest of sinners 
may well feel bold in coming to the throne of grace, as he is 
commanded and exhorted to do. Covered with the spotless 
robe of the Lord’s own righteousness, he can venture 
nearer to the intolerable splendor of the throne of God 
than the most favored angel in the ranks of the heavenly 
hierarchy. 

6. The Spirit as an intercessor in us gives stability to our 
desires, patience to our waiting, assurance to our petitions, 
and joy to our anticipations of sure answers to our prayers. 
The indulgence of strong and ardent desires for any length- 
ened period of time is wearisome to human weakness, and if 
left to our own protection and support, unaided by grace, 
would certainly soon wear out. There is infinite comfort in 
the thought that he who gives these needful elements of pre- 
vailing prayer can sustain them in our weak hearts. Our 
patience in waiting for answers to prayer is apt to weary and 
pass over into fretfulness and unbelief; he can make us rest 
in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Left to ourselves 
to pray unaided, our prayers could give no assurance except 
of failure; his petitions kindled in us, the Son will assuredly 
endorse, the Father will assuredly answer. His intercession 
is a fountain of joy as well as of strength in the offering of 
prayers. 

7. This control of the matter of our prayers will also con- 
trol the manner of them, They will become reverent, child- 
like in humility and freedom, intensely solicitous, yet full of 
submission, persistent in spite of discouragements designed 
to test faith, patience, and sincerity of desire, full of confi- 
dence without presumption, full of joy, full of hope. Prayers 
are often offered in a manner which unerringly indicates that 
the interceding Spirit has nothing, or but little, to do with 
them. Coldness and formality, studied rhetoric, pride of 
elegance and grace, censorious reflections, impudent famil- 


348 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


: iarity, often mistaken for child-like simplicity, any atom of 
the Pharasaic spirit, absence of avowed dependence on the 
Mediator, the presence of avowed dependence on Virgin or 
saint, or store of churchly merit, all give token of the absence 
of the Spirit in his office as an intercessor. LHvery prayer 
in which he has no share is sure of rejection, not only as a 
failure to pray aright, but as a fresh offence in an agera- 
vated form. It is, perhaps, safer to sin in sin’s own livery 
than to assume the livery of the King to do dishonor to his 
crown. 

8. It will be a fit close tothis attempt to delineate a precious 
function of the Holy Spirit, to lay emphasis on the free, loving 
disposition and the never-failing readiness of our gracious 
Intercessor to help our infirmities. He delights in his work; 
he is always in reach; the freedom of our access to his loving 
presence and to his gracious influences is absolute. The 
merits of our Saviour are not more constantly and freely 
open to our acceptance than the influences of the Spirit. 
The Father is more willing to give the Holy Ghost to them 
that ask him, than earthly parents are to give good gifts 
unto their children. The Spirit is just as ready to be given 
as the Father is to give him. His infinite loving-kindness, 
his tender pity for lost souls, his delight in executing the 
great covenant of mercy, all utter a welcome of surpassing 
tenderness to all who would seek his aid. 

One more remark, and we are done. The absolute de- 
pendence of a lost soul and of a saved soul during the 
process of its inward deliverance may be, and often is, felt as a 
discouragement; but never except under an entire misappre- 
hension of both its design and its appropriate effects. So 
far from any legitimate discouragement, even to an uncove- 
nanted and an unsaved sinner, it is just the opposite; for it 
gives him the only possible chance for him to be saved. 
Whenever this feeling of discouragement springs up in view 
of our dependence on this gracious helper, we may be sure 


THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 349 


it is an illegitimate view, to be repudiated at once. His 
purpose in all his dealings with the saints is to help their 
infirmities, to prevent the failure of their hopes, to secure 
the answer to their prayers, to prosper their work, and to 
assure their reward. His boundless tender love and his 
official functions are so full,so free of access, so glowing in 
the welcome that they offer to every soul in search of help 
and healing, that as no thought can compass the excelling 
mystery of his grace, no word can tell it. 


CoHGAS a LE b ene 
THH COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you foreyer; even the Spirit of truth; whom the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither nowt him; but 
ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and ghall be in you.”—John in his 
Gospel. 


HESE words of Jesus were spoken to the disciples in 
that wonderful talk he made the night he was betrayed. 

He had at last made them understand what they had hitherto 
been so reluctant to believe, that his plainest statements seem 
to have no effect whatever. But now they did comprehend 
that he was to die, and they were overwhelmed with despond- 
ency. Their notions of the Messiah of Israel, at first in no 
way different from the universal notions of their countrymen, 
had been greatly modified by the Master’s teaching, but were 
still full of error and confusion. The idea that Messiah was 
to die had never entered their minds, and having accepted 
Jesus as the Prince of Israel, the conception of his death 
seemed to be a mental impossibility. They had learned to 
rely upon his protection with such absolute confidence in his 
astonishing power; they had looked so confidently to be in- 
demnified for the prejudice and loss of caste they had en- 
countered by adhering to him, by high preferment in the 
kingdom they expected him to set up, that now the assurance 
of his death threw down their castles in the air and filled 
them with confusion. They had felt so secure, so completely 
emancipated from the fear of death, sickness, and bodily 
want, that ungovernable sorrow now filled their hearts. All 
their hopes were crushed by this unexpected blow. The 
words of the Messiah in this last pathetic and powerful 

300 


THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. 351 


address—the most remarkable dying address ever delivered — 
were all directed to qualify this state of feeling, and the 
principal ground of comfort he unveiled before them was the 
promised gift of that Comforter who was to take his place as 
the guide, the strength, the universal helper in all the neces- 
sities of those who had looked hitherto to his visible pre- 
sence for all they needed. He was to be emphatically the 
Paraclete, which is the literal translation of the. word ren- 
dered Comforter in our English Bible. The name Paraclete 
is composed of two words, which literally mean “the one 
called to,” expressing the notion of one called to our side 
for help in every emergency. No greater comfort can be 
given to one engaged in any difficult or dangerous enter- 
prise than to have a reliable assistant who can always be 
called upon for efficient assistance at all times. The name 
Comforter, then, given to the great Paraclete of the Chris- 
tian covenant, is not altogether inappropriate; yet it is 
defective in that it seems to confine his function to the 
one specific service of giving consolation, whereas the 
comfort really comes from. the far broader sense of the 
title as the universal helper of the saint in all the emer- 
gencies of his life and work. Inasmuch, however, as 
the specific service of a comfort-giver is a true function of 
the Spirit as a Paraclete, it will be entirely allowable to give 
special consideration to that part of his work, more especially 
as attention has been and will be still further during our 
discussion, called to other specific modes in which the blessed 
Paraclete discharges his glorious and many-sided office. He 
was designated in connection with his promised consolation 
as “the Spirit of truth.” This title intimates, what is also 
expressly stated, that he would do his work as a Comforter 
by “leading them into the truth.” He was to be a specially 
valuable helper, because, unlike the visible Saviour with 
whom they had lived only for a time, he was “to abide with 
them forever.” He was to prove an assured reliance for 


352 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


them, not because he would be always accessible to them at 
some one place where they might not always find it con- 
venient to resort to him; but, far higher and more effective 
privilege than that, he should “ dwell with them,” and better 
still, he should “be in them.” These are the three general 
and yet discriminated modes in which his work as the Com- 
forter should be done. 

1. The word comfort carries the notion of a peculiar 
modification of enjoyment. It does not convey the concep- 
tion of enjoyment in as high a degree as the terms happiness 
or pleasure; but it does carry the notion of more stability 
and substantial endurance than the word pleasure, and an 
equal measure of this more lasting property with the word 
happiness. But the principal differentiating feature which 
distinguishes comfort from other forms of enjoyment is its 
antithesis and relation to evil or pain. A holy angel may be 
said to be happy or to enjoy special seasons of pleasure, but 
he can hardly be said to be comfortable, because he is never 
subject to pain or distress. Comfort is a form of enjoyment 
which emerges when pain or distress is qualified by some 
concurrent alleviation, or is followed by relief, or when an 
impending or possible evil is effectively qualified in its stroke 
or absolutely prevented. Comfort, therefore, is on this 
account the more adapted and the more practicable to the 
conditions of existence in this world, because evil in ten 
thousand forms is perpetually threatening or actually prey- 
ing upon human peace. 70 comfort, then, is to infuse a 
certain substantial element of enjoyment into a heart and life 
assailed, and constantly assailable with evil. The end and 
purpose of the Spirit as a comforter is not directly a purpose 
to purify, but to promote enjoyment. His ultimate purpose 
in all his special acts is to carry out the pledge to the 
believer to deliver him from sin; to purify the heart and 
infuse holiness into the whole nature of the man. But all 
his special acts of sealing, unction, witness, leading, and 


THEr CoMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. 353 


interceding have a special end directly in view, while all lead 
indirectly and ultimately to the general end of sanctification. 
The special direct end of the comfort of the Spirit is to com- 
fort a sufferer. God is love, and he delighteth in enjoyment 
for its own sake, as one of the ends which his benevolent 
nature delights to accomplish. The Spirit delights in all his 
work, and he delights in comforting. The very purpose is 
to comfort, to infuse an element of peace into the regenerate 
soul, either as actually suffering, or as threatened with some 
coming sorrow, a form of future trial which will, of course, 
afflict in advance of its actual advent. The office of the 
Spirit as a comforter is not only a distinct part of his work, 
but from its very nature, from the very end and purpose it 
has in view, is specially adapted to our conditions of exist- 
ence. As a distinct aim and function of his office, and as an 
important and distinguished branch of it, so much so as to give 
him a distinctive title as the Comforter, he may be applied 
to as such; comfort as such may be sought for ; and his con- 
solations expected, in compliance with the terms on which 
all his gracious acts are promised. An unhappy Christian, 
though truly a child of the covenant, is not only living below 
his privileges, but in a breach of his duty. God has pro- 
vided to comfort him, and commanded him to rejoice in the 
Lord always. Such a Christian is doing scant justice to the 
benignant Spirit whose official business is to comfort him, 
and who takes infinite delight in doing it. 

2. The sources of comfort employed by the Holy Ghost 
are varied by the evils which it is designed to qualify. To 
comfort one who is blind he must be enabled to see, or be 
furnished with aids which may, partially at least, make up 
for the trying deficiency. To comfort one who is weak, he 
must be strengthened, or help must be found for him. To 
comfort one who is afraid, his fears must be qualified or re- 
moved. ‘To comfort one in distress, some source of ease- 
ment must be found. Comfort must be adjusted to the evil 

23 


354 Gifts To BELIEVERS. 


it confronts. The great comprehensive sources of comfort 
to creatures conditioned as men are universally in this world, 
or as the regenerate soul is in this scene of his progressive 
sanctification, may be, not exhaustively, classified in the fol- 
lowing forms: Deliverance from present evil, or a guarantee 
against its worst results. Security from evil yet to come; 
from it altogether, or from its worst results. The effects of 
past evil prevented of its worst or its most lasting conse- 
- quences. Present evil accompanied by compensating agen- 
cies. Sure grounds of confidence and hope furnished. Rich 
resources supplied, and available help in every emergency, 
and assurance of their continuance. Certain and valuable 
future advantages as the reward of fidelity, and the assur- 
ance of their continuance when gained. The reliable pledge 
of a final, full, and unalterable deliverance out of the state 
and possibility of all evil whatever, and the assurance of 
all good attainable for all eternity. These are among the 
sources of comfort which are employed by the Spirit in 
doing his blest work of cheering the saints in the trials of 
their earthly pilgrimage. He unfolds some of these com- 
forts by what he teaches; some by what he does; some by what 
he imparts, and some by what he guarantees to their hopes. 

3. The Comforter whom Jesus promised to send is imme- 
diately distinguished as ‘the Spirit of truth.” This desig- 
nation at once leads us to the conception that his work as a 
comforter is to be done by his teaching us the truth. This 
is more clearly set forth than in a mere inference from a 
distinctive name. In an after part of his discourse our Lord 
distinctly says: “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you 
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
soever I have said unto you.” ‘This teaching as it applies 
to the apostles, and other apostolic men, secured their in- 
spiration in preparing the great standards of the Christian 
faith. As it applies to believers generally, it refers to that 


THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. 355 


influence exerted on the individual mind by which it is en- 
abled to understand and realize the true force and meaning 
of the truth set forth in the inspired record. As the nature 
of this distinctive kind of knowledge has already been set 
forth in its contrast to a mere intellectual knowledge, it is 
needless to repeat it here. It then appeared to be a species 
of insight of the truth due entirely to the influence of the 
Spirit, by which the real sense and force of the truth was 
brought out, with an effect upon the feelings as well as on 
the intelligence—an effect suitable to the kind of truth thus 
apprehended. Alarming truth is thus made to really awaken 
alarm, and cheering truth to awaken joy. It is in this way 
the Spirit comforts by his teaching: he opens the sense and 
power of the glorious, glad, and comforting truths of the 
gospel, and through a lively faith in them unlooses their 
gladdening influences on the comforted soul. The gospel is 
in itself, in its essential nature, “glad tidings of great joy.” 
It proclaims peace on earth and good-will to men. All its 
grand doctrines are full of delight. It filled heaven with re- 
joicing in anticipation of its enterprise, and sent some vast 
cohort of the heavenly host down upon the plains of Bethle- 
hem on the night of the Saviour’s birth, and in their unmas- 
tered exultation caused them to break through the veil which 
shuts out the sights and sounds of the upper sphere from 
the dwellers on the earth. No human soul has ever caught 
its real meaning without experiencing some degree of the 
joy and comfort which it carries in its bosom. It brings to 
view the grand truth that sin can now be pardoned through 
the work of the Redeemer; and whenever a human heart, 
oppressed with the consciousness of its sin, can grasp this 
one truth in its full meaning 7z¢ well be comforted. 

As comfort stands related to an evil in the qualification or 
conquest of which this form of enjoyment emerges, the Spirit 
comforts under the pressure of sin by unveiling the signifi- 
cance and the power of the atoning blood. Until he does 


356 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


unveil it, the poor, trembling soul, sick with its guilt and 
mortal fears, will stand gazing on the glorious redemption 
price without a solitary conception of its power to help him 
out of his troubles. It will seem as empty of significance as 
the cold, confused outlines of the figures stamped upon a 
porcelain lamp-shade, even although the strongest rays of 
the sunlight are poured upon them on the outside. That 
poor, sin-stricken heart will weary itself pitifully in the en- 
deavor to see what others tell him there is of power in the 
remedy to subdue his pain. But now let the Holy Spirit 
assume his work as a comforter by his teaching, and then, 
like the lamp-shade when the lamp is kindled within and the 
flame brings out the hidden forms which lay ina confused 
and indiscriminate mass under the strongest sunlight, so, 
under the secret teaching of the Comforter, the gladness of 
the gospel to a lost sinner reveals itself, and the soul is filled 
with comfort. The promised Spirit has taken that one thing 
of Christ and showed it unto him. What is true of the soul 
in its earlier experiences is measurably true of regenerate 
souls to the end of their pilgrimage. Often to them the 
blood of Christ seems to lose its significance, and lay down 
its power. The cause of this appearance is the same, and 
the remedy is the same; the cause is dimness of eye-sight; 
the remedy is the teaching of the Comforter. What 1s true 
of this one grand truth, the blood of atonement, is equally 
true of all the glorious truths of the covenant. They are all 
inconceivably rich in meaning, and in their assurance of ad- 
vantage to the sinners of the human race. But their power 
to cheer the human heart depends upon the teaching of the 
Spirit of truth in his work as a comforter. God designs to 
bring back his wandering creatures to direct intercourse with 
himself, and even the system of truth revealed for human re- 
demption is not allowed to interfere with their dependence 
on him. They are sent first to the truth, and then back of 
it to a living Saviour to reveal its saving power. The great 


THE COMFORT OF THE SPTRIT. Stig | 


and precious promises without this shining of the Spirit 
within them, are like checks drawn for countless wealth, 
filled out plainly, but the vital signature written in invisible 
ink; they disclose no meaning; they exhibit no power to 
give content until the vitalizing heat of the Holy Spirit is 
brought to bear upon them, and then the draft and signature 
of a faithful God become visible. : 

The promises of the covenant cover all the emergencies in 
the career of a saint. There are pledges of grace for life and 
for death; for the time of joy and the time of sorrow; for 
- supplies suited to the day; for guidance; for control; for 
needed aid; for every contingency. But they are all empty 
of power ; they are changed into mockeries of felt necessity, 
unless the Spirit shine within them. Tempted believers, in 
the season of hot battle with some great trial of faith and 
patience, are often sorely vexed with the promises; they are 
so different apparently from what they seemed to be, and 
prove so powerless when they are most needed, the tempta- 
tion is suggested strongly to throw them away as practically 
useless. To do this would be a fearful sin; it would be 
to charge God with folly and unfaithfulness; it would be to 
make him a liar; it would be to charge him with trifling with 
the hopes he has raised. The difficulty is in ourselves, not 
in him; in our unbelief, not in his unfaithfulness; in our 
want of insight, not in his truth. What is needed is the in- 
ward illumination of the Comforter teaching us to see the 
truth as it is and as we ought to receive it. In all such trials 
of faith it is well to meet the temptation at the threshold ; to 
say what is true, the fault is in ourselves, and to make up 
the issue squarely in our mind; these promises are true; 
they do mean something; they are full of a great and pre- 
cious significance. The reason why they seem otherwise is 
in me and in my sin, and I will not yield one inch to the 
suggestion that God is either false or trifling. I will trust 
thy words, O spotless Christ! Help thou mine unbelief, 


358 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


O Comforter of thy people! Then in the happy moment 
when the gracious Spirit of truth assumes his office of com- 
forter, and shines in our hearts, and fills the darkened pro- 
mises with his holy light, we shall be able to see as well as to 
know that the fault was in us, and that the promises were all 
the time full of a significance which deserved our confidence, 
and were inexpressibly rich in comfort. 

So likewise the Spirit comforts by unveiling the love of the 
Son; that infinite and unwasting fountain of tender pity 
which led him to go through all the fearful conditions of re- 
demption, and which still flows in infinite and undiminishable 
strength and fervor in the heart of the great High Priest. 
We are apt to regard the love of Christ as having done its 
work when he passed out of sight into the blue vault over 
Olivet, having made a wonderful display on a brief theatre 
which closed up with its closing scenes. But that same great 
love which led him from the manger to the cross 1s still beating 
inhis bosom. It is as keen in the administration as it was in 
the achievement of redemption. The appeal of the living sin- 
ner is not merely to a great by-gone and finished work of a dead 
Redeemer, but also to a living love and a living power ina 
living Saviour; to a love as much more tender and vehement 
than the warmest of mere human and Christian sympathies as 
his infinite heart is more capacious of the generous affection. 
When the Spirit teaches from within the truth concerning 
the love of Jesus our priest, as he ever lives to intercede for 
us, it will bring all the comfort involved in a true priesthood 
to a sinful soul, and all that is involved in the love of a friend 
at court, and that friend the King’s own Son. 

In like manner the Spirit governs our apprehensions of 
the love of the Father. In our ignorance and narrowness of 
view the Father even when reconciled to us in the Son still 
seems to stand in the background, still the representative of 
the rights of the crown imperial, the offended majesty of 
heaven, to be adored at a distance and feared; but he does 


THE COMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. ° 359 


not receive credit for the infinite and brooding love of a 
Father’s heart. Yet that is his name, his chosen designa- 
tion. In his loving kindness the whole scheme of redemp- 
tion took its rise. He had to require the satisfaction which 
the Son rendered; but it was his proposal that it should be 
done in order to secure the end in view. Now that it has 
been done, no restrictive regard to law and justice dams 
back the rushing tides of a Father’s infinite love. He is all 
a Father now, yearning over his rebellious and unhappy 
creatures, yearning to draw them back to a Father's tender- 
ness and protecting care. Ah! when the Spirit teaches us 
the glorious truth of the Fatherhood of God, no words can 
portray its comfort. All our dark and troubled apprehen- 
sions of him as the offended King and Lawgiver and Dis- 
poser of events, give way to the loving confidence of the 
filial feeling, and we are able to say, Abba, Father, with in- 
expressible peace. 

In like manner the Spirit, when he would comfort us, 
teaches in the same way of realized spiritual apprehension 
the truth concerning himself and his love for souls. When 1t 
is said, “He shall not speak of himself,” it is not meant that 
he would say nothing about himself. It means that he 
would not speak merely by his own authority or teach truths 
given by himself alone. He was to take of the things of 
Christ, things said and done by the Son, and, therefore, 
marked out beforehand for the narration of the Spirit. While 
the Holy Ghost does not speak much concerning his own 
share in the work of salvation, relatively to what he says of 
the work of the Son, yet he does speak enough of most pre- 
cious revelations concerning his own work and offices to carry 
infinite comfort to a heart truly apprehending what he de- 
clares. One mighty element of this consoling truth is what 
he reveals concerning the love of the Spirit. We are ready * 
enough to give him credit for his faithfulness and his power 


*Phillip’s Preface. 


360 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


in doing his official work, but are slow to recognize his loy- 
ing delight in it. It is easy to see and admire that some- 
what stern fidelity, as it seems to some, and the masterful 
strength with which he dwells amid the awful corruptions, 
the serpents, the devils, and the unclean birds of an unholy 
heart, and keeps the stronghold against the strong man, 
Satan. But in this view of his faithfulness and power we 
are apt to lose sight of his infinite and tender love, his de- 
light in his work, his infinite sweet complacency in holding 
the fort, and with incessant and tender touch deadening and 
wearing out the dread evils which he finds in his dreadful 
habitation. He delights to be trusted ; he delights to be ap- 
pealed to; he delights to put forth his mighty hand when the 
ery of the tried soul comes up to him for help; he delights to 
infuse his might into the weak human arm and enable it to 
drive the dread archangel back. Who can measure the un- 
searchable riches of the love of the Spirit? As he unveils 
this love to the rejoicing apprehension of the saint, comfort, 
deep and rich, will flow into the trembling heart, and it will 
be comforted in its Almighty Guardian. 

4. But the Spirit comforts not only by what he teaches, 
but by what he does, by a positive exertion of his power, by 
a positive indulgence of his gracious kindness in positive 
actions. All his inward teaching is done through a prelimi- 
nary act on the soul. The heart stands face to face with the 
glorious facts of redemption, but it does not see them. Asa 
blind man turns his sightless eyeballs up toward the starry 
vault, and rolls them in vain to see the splendor of the 
siderial fires, so the sinner seeks in vain to see the glory of 
redeeming grace. To give that blind man even a glimpse, 
still more a steady vision of the glory of the night sky, some 
power of vision must be infused into his piteous, defective 
eyes. An act of power must precede the vision, and the joy 
and comfort which it brings. It is so with the energy of the 
Spirit in the soul. One of the modes of the Comforter 


Tur CoMFORT OF THE SPIRIT. 361 


pointed out by the Saviour at the table of the Passover and 
his newly appointed supper, was the dwelling of the Spirit 
with the saint. He is in the house with him always. His 
dwelling there is no idle occupancy of a chimney corner; 
he is no old and helpless incumbent of a space by the house- 
hold fire and in the household life. He is an active member 
of the family ; he is a leader in its business; he acts contin- 
ually in its interest.. He guides; he governs; he stimulates 
to action; he rebukes; he rouses to vigilance; and he com- 
forts and cheers the garrison of the hell-beleaguered heart. 
He is a soldier; the word of God is his sword, and he fights 
in the fore-front of every assaul§ upon the walls. His active 
presence is an inexpressible comfort to the weary and often 
fear-stricken soldier of the cross. When he can realize who 
it is that is animating and guiding the strife he is comforted, 
his strength and courage are renewed. Like the knight in 
the romance when fighting with unparalleled skill and cour- 
age against three redoubtable champions at once, and felt 
that in spite of all his matchless valor he must go down, he 
suddenly heard the batile-cry of the lion-hearted king rush- 
ing to the rescue, and felt the assurance of victory return to 
his sinking heart, so. the Christian soul renews its hopes 
under the active exertions of the Holy Spirit. It is a glori- 
ous encouragement to know that the blessed Comforter is 
able to infuse his consolations by the positive exercise of his 
infinite energies for that very purpose. 

5. Yet another mode in which the Comforter imparts his 
comfort, as Jesus pointed out, arises from his positive in- 
dwelling in the very soul of the individual saint: ‘“ Le shall 
be in you.” Not only shall he dwell in the same household 
and take part in its activities; not only shall he occupy the 
same fortress and take part in its defence; but, best security 
of all, he shall actually be in every sonl that believes, and 
thus be even a nearer and a more effective help and security 
than as a member of the household dwelling with them. He 


5 
362 GIFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


is in them thus for a double purpose, not only to impart to 
them all they need of wisdom, holiness, love, strength, and 
watchful energy, but also to guarantee the safety of the house 
and fortress even when men sleep. He is the strong man 
keeping his goods; a stronger than he must bind him before 
his goods can be spoiled. He is in them on no idle or fruit- 
less errand; he is there to carry out the pledge of the Re- 
deemer to the believing soul, stn shall not have dominion over 
you. He is there to impart holiness, to give grace according 
to the day, to bestow wisdom, patience, and courage, to 
sanctify and comfort in affliction, to erase the image of Satan, 
to impress the image of God, to conquer the unholy pas- 
sions, and to fill the soul with all the fruits of the Spirit. His 
intimate indwelling is the guarantee of safety to the saint. 
Satan is mighty, but he cannot overcome and lead captive 
out of a rescued and regenerate human soul the Spirit of the 
living God, the Comforter, Guide, and Protector of all his 
people. 

6. The Holy Spirit as a comforter is a power practically 
available and in reach of every Christian. He may be 
sought as such; but he must be sought with all prayer and 
supplication, with watchful diligence in all duty, and in 
avoidance of all sin, if we hope to realize his influence in 
this sweet branch of his official work. The Father is more 
ready to give the Holy Spirit to do all his gracious work to 
them that ask him, than earthly parents are to give good 
gifts to their children. To give comfort is one great branch 
of his office under the covenant; he delights to do it, and 
consequently there is no excuse for an unhappy Christian. 
Let him seek the Comforter. 


Che Ae bw tere Tie eXe le 
THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. 


‘‘ And bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you.”—John in his Gospel. 


Ae HESE words instruct us touching another function 
and. special action of the Holy Spirit which is of 
inestimable service to a fallen being, his influence on the 
memory in keeping the man alive to the great interests of his 
spiritual concerns. The reactionary effect of all positive sin 
on all the affections of the heart and all the powers of the 
mind constitutes, perhaps, the most remarkable, and cer- 
tainly one of the most lamentable, of all the results of sin. 
Each sinful transient act leaves a permanent record and me- 
morial of itself on the nature of the sinning agent. It 
deepens the inward depravity of the moral nature. It pol- 
lutes the fountain of moral energy more and more, and ren- 
ders it more capable and certain of producing other transient 
acts of sin, each of which reacts in deepening the stain upon 
the soul. Thus there is an incessant mutual action and re- 
action going on between sin and depravity, leading to an 
endless increase of both. There is an awful reality in the 
phrase which describes every sinner as lost. 

The effect of this depraved condition of the moral nature 
is displayed upon every faculty of the intellectual nature, 
not less than upon the moral department of the soul itself. 
The affections of the heart exert an influence directly upon 
the perceptive faculties, and regulate the judgments which 
they form. This is the great source of errors in religion; 
they are always rooted in the disorders of the will, affecting 
the views of the understanding. The effect is not only mis- 


leading, but enfeebling on the general energy of the intellect, 
363 


364 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


by affecting the justness of perception in each of its particu- 
lar faculties. The very fact of its being misled shows the 
injury to its strength and its capacity of just discernment. 
That wide-spread ignorance and blindness of understanding 
which appears in the shocking and almost incredible degra- 
dation of barbarous tribes of the human race is the outcome 
of long periods of unrestrained moral iniquities. The whole 
structure of the mental nature in man has suffered and will 
always suffer from the effects of sin. 

The faculty of memory has not escaped this desolating in- 
fluence. It has shared conspicuously in it; it has become 
treacherous in receiving and holding the principles of duty 
and truth; it has become slackened and limp in its grasp 
upon religious ideas and impressions. It is easy to forget 
God. Impressions made by the truth are like the morning 
cloud and the early dew. Thoughts of eternity, responsi- 
bility, sin, and the awful issues of transgression are soon for- 
gotten. This is just as true of memories, strong and vigor- 
ous, as it is of feebler specimens of the faculty. The same 
cause operates the same effect. That is directly due in all 
cases to the feelings of the heart. The feelings are op- 
posed, intensely opposed, to the entertainment of these con- 
ceptions. Men remember God and are troubled, and in 
seeking relief from the trouble, the only relief which seems. 
practicable, at least the only one which seems agreeable, is. 
to make war on memory and to endeavor to forget. This 
state of reluctance in the will to entertain thoughts made un- 
pleasing by the conciousness of guilt works out its relief and 
also its retribution upon this all-important faculty of the 
mind. Memory not only yields up its unpleasant present- 
ments, but becomes less and less capable of making them; it 
grows incompetent on its spiritual side; it becomes feeble 
and treacherous of spiritual impressions. Hence line upon 
line, and precept upon precept is necessary to give truth a 
chance to do its work; and when much resistance is made, 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. 365 


and the soul becomes skilful from long practice in evading 
the influence and in erasing the impressions of the truth, 
neither the line upon line nor the most vivid and powerful 
representations will make any more impression than writing 
on water, or wounding the invisible air with the stroke of a 
sabre. The final stage is when Ephraim is let alone alto- 
gether; the memory becomes utterly incompetent to retain 
any impression. of religious ideas, and the great gospel of 
erace is as completely blotted out, so far as that unhappy 
mind is concerned, as if every page of the Bible had become 
blank, and God had recalled the offers of his mercy. , Such 
a soul has by an elaborate and diligently sustained effort 
made itself a heathen; the most barbarous idolater in all 
heathendom is not more completely without the gospel of 
erace. 

The awful danger of these effects of sin upon the memory 
springs from the fact that the truth is the necessary instru- 
ment both in the conversion of the sinner and in the sancti- 
fication of the saint. The one is begotten to spiritual life 
by the gospel; the other is sanctified by the truth. Conse- 
quently, whoever neglects the truth discounts his own hope 
of salvation. Whatever Christian seeks for growth and com- 
fort, and neglects to keep his mind busy and imbued with 
the truth, is following a visionary hope. He who diligently 
endeavors to erase the impression of the truth from his mind 
is striving with special energy to blot out his own hope of 
salvation. He is like the lunatic drawing a keen razor across 
the jugular vein to see how close he can cut and not kill. 
Memory as the faculty by which truth is received from the 
understanding to serve all the high purposes of truth, carries 
heaven and hell in its grasp. It carries all the influences of 
the glorious gospel; all the chances of salvation to a sinner; 
all the opportunities of growth and comfort to a Christian ; 
all the benefits of the work of Christ and the offices of the 
Holy Spirit; all the interests of the church; all the usefulness- 


366 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


of life; all the consolations of death; all the experiences of 
grace; all the comfort of affliction ; all success in the spiritual 
warfare; all the issues of the endless state beyond the grave; 
memory carries all these immeasurable interests because it 
carries or refuses to carry the truth which conditions and 
controls them. It is a lesson which can never be learned 
too soon, or fixed in a conviction too powerful, that while we 
are dependent on the efficacious grace of God in the whole 
matter of salvation, we are equally dependent on the active 
and constant handling of the truth, because the Spirit does 
his work through the truth as his instrument. Our energy 
and fidelity are provided for and called into play at every 
step and in every process of the redemption of grace, from 
the beginning to the triumphant conclusion within the gates 
of heaven, as well as the grace which alone can make that 
energy effectual. 

The necessity and the value of the Holy Spirit in the office 
set forth in the text of this chapter is manifest. His relation 
to the sin-weakened memory is here brought to view, and 
suggests to our investigation the modes in which his healing 
influence on the injured faculty is exerted, and the inexpres- 
sible benefits determined by it. 

1. The first great benefit which the Holy Spirit achieved 
for the church and the world, both for the regenerate and 
unregenerate human soul, by his work on the human memory, 
was displayed in the construction of the Scriptures. No 
doubt the words of the text had primary reference to the re- 
call of all that Jesus had spoken and taught in the presence 
of the twelve apostles. But for his supernatural control of 
their memories much that Jesus had said would never have 
been reported at all; much would have been misrepresented 
with a perfect integrity of purpose; much would have been 
colored and changed by unconscious prepossessions ; and all 
would have been defective, not only in certainty, but in au- 
thority. But it was too wisely ordered for such hazards to 


ik on a>) S*  aeee e 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. 367 


_be encountered. The Holy Spirit was put in charge of the 
memories of those commissioned to record the teachings of 
the Nazarene, and thus to furnish so much of the great per- 
manent standards of the Christian system as the human 
memory was to be concerned in supplying. They wrote as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and the church has the 
assurance in this part of the relation of the Spirit to the 
human memory that all of our Lord’s personal history, in- 
structions, and works, which were needful to the salvation of 
the world, have been wisely selected and reliably transmitted. 
He brought to memory in the chosen writers all that infinite 
wisdom selected to be recorded; he gave a perfect guarantee 
against error in misapprehension and misstatement; he 
stamped the whole with the divine authority by his own 
relation to the record. One grand department of his work 
of inspiration was in his influence upon memory; and if there 
is any value in the Scriptures; any guidance for the sinner; 
any gracious effect on the heart of the saint; any consolation 
in the glad tidings of great joy, it is due in an important 
measure to the relation of the Holy Spirit to the faculty of 
memory. As we know that these things were written that 
men might believe in Jesus, and believing, have life through 
his name, we can see in this one effect of the Spirit’s power 
over memory a benefit absolutely beyond any adequate 
esteem. 

2. But this relation of the Spirit to human memory comes 
nearer to the person of every man, and exerts a more direct 
and personal influence for his benefit. To this it is due that 
the sinner is kept at all awake to his spiritual relations and in- 
terests. To this it is due that the moral nature of the heathen 
is kept sufficiently alive to allow of the influence of the 
moral conceptions necessary to the constitution of civil so- 
ciety, and the discharge of its functions. It is due to this 
that any thought or concern for his own personal relations 
to God, for the forgiveness of his sins, or for his interest in 


368 GiIFTs To BELIEVERS. 


the great salvation, ever makes any impression on any sin- 
ner under the preaching of the gospel, or ever abides for 
ever so transient a period in his mind. The thoughts are 
absorbed by the scenes and interests of this life. Any re- 
cognition of the fact of another life, or of the principles 
which will control well-being to man in passing into it, is 
the result of some act of memory, or some suggestion to the 
understanding from without. For the most part, so far as 
these ideas are concerned, in the vast bulk of mankind 


memory is practically paralyzed. Perhaps the most extra-" 


ordinary manifestation of* this strange scene of human ex- 
istence here in the world, as it appears to the intelligences 
of the sphere of existence beyond it, is the amazing insensi- 
bility of the teeming and energetic masses of mankind to 
what is before them. There is a wonderful force and preci- 
sion in the Scripture teaching which represents men as 
asleep ; the ordinary states of consciousness very strongly 
resemble the physical condition of somnambulism. To the 
angels of God, and especially to the disembodied spirits of 
men who have themselves passed from under the shadows 
and the stupor into the clear light beyond, this state of the 
memory is the wonder of wonders. For this insensibility is 
in a great degree due to the state of the memory, although 
that is itself due to other influences below it. The facts of 
the case are all admitted; death is fully recognized as the 
separation of soul and body, and a transfer into another 
state of conscious existence; but there is a prevailing insen- 
sibility to the facts; they do not abide in the mind, or dis- 
close the power that is in them. If this state of things is 
not broken up it will, of course, continue to the end, and 


induce all the fatal consequences attached to the folly. Men 
are truly in a deep sleep so far as these great interests are 


concerned. Rouse them up by ever so eager and passionate 
a remonstrance, and they sink back at once into the same 
stupor. Nay, rouse them to a degree that will make them 


. 


Se ee —— ee af 


a 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. 369 


solicitous and lead them to some good measure of activity, 
and unless the same gracious Spirit who first broke their 
slumber shall continue to maintain the impression, it will 
only require a very brief contact with the living interests of 
this world to sweep it away, and the great interests of the 
future will again fade out of sight. No lesson is more im- 
portant to be learned by the sin-sick and stupefied souls of 
men than this: that all their impressions of spiritual things, 
no matter how vivid and stimulating to hope, fear and ac- 
tivity they may be, are absolutely dependent on the influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit to keep them alive and operative in 
the mind. What is true in this respect of the sinner before 
regeneration is in its measure true of the soul after regen- 
eration. The Holy Paraclete must keep his watchful hand 
on the springs of memory at every stage of the process of 
sanctification through the truth, or the memory will lapse 
and discharge its precious freight, on a scale of complete- 
ness measured exactly by the energy of the Spirit’s influ- 
ence on the faculty. No human wit or watchfulness can, 
in its own strength, resist the evasive influences whieh are 
brought to bear to rob the soul of the truth which leads to 
life. 

3. These original movements in the series of acts by which 
the Holy Spirit leads from spiritual death to spiritual life, 
are mediated through that part of the truth called the law. 
He takes of that part of the things of Christ and shows the 
sinner his danger. He has been before instructed as to the 
peril which his sin has superinduced. He does not question 
the fact; for he is aware that God in nature, as well as in 
Scripture, imposes penalties for violated law; but he is in a 
condition of entire forgetfulness of a part of the fact which 
he theoretically admits, and that is the urgency of the 
admitted peril. When the Spirit brings that to mind it be- 
comes impossible for him to remain in the same state of 
cheerful indifference. His sleep is broken; he is awakened, 

24 


370 Girts TO BELIEVERS. 
to use the technical term employed to describe this rousing of 
the perceptions and memory, to the full significance of a fact 
which was both known and acknowledged before. Then the 
value of the Spirit’s influence on the meniory gives another 
proof of its worth. The soul had been fully instructed that 
sin not only involved the sinner in danger, but in criminality, 
and made him guilty in the sense of blameworthiness as well 
as of exposure. But this sort of knowledge of the iniquity 
of sin made no impression; he did not see or care for it. 
Nay, it is possible, and frequently the case in point of fact, 
that the sense of danger may exist, and produce only feelings 
of rage against God, because there is no concurrent sense of 
deserving to be in danger. The memory of this part of the 
truth is in abeyance. But as the Spirit quickens the mem- 
ory to recall, and the understanding to grasp, this feature of 
the case, a new modification of feeling comes into play. The 
Spirit takes of the penalties of the law to awaken to danger; 
he takes of the precept, the excellent substance and matter 
of the law, to produce intuitions of the nature of sin. The 
worth of the lesson in both cannot be fully conceived. For- 
getfulness of the divine law will be followed in both saint 
and sinner by consequences eminently disastrous. It leads 
to the obscuring, and thus to the neglect of duty; it leads to 
false moral ideas touching both right and wrong; it leads to 
false principles impelling to action, and to false rules for 
suiding it; it leads to incompetent and false views of sin, 
and thus to false repentance, or prevents it altogether; 
it leads to false conceptions of the divine authority, and 
obscures the supreme nature of all his claims Forgetfulness 
of obligation leads to every species of transgression. An 
influence on the memory which will keep it at all alive to the 
significance and the claims of the divine law is inmeasurably 
valuable to a being whose mental states tend perpetually to- 
wards insensibility and stupor. 

4. This same tendency continues to exist to a greater or 


7 i i A a em a pil i i 


SS eS Se 


Se a ee ee ae 


a, 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. OL 


less degree in the regenerate soul. It is one of the effects of 
sin, and sin, though its power is broken by regenerating 
grace, still abides in the soul, and exerts a degree of all its 
tendencies as before. There is a conflict at once begun, 
which never ceases until the final triumph of the law of grace 
over the law of sin. From the deadly influence of this re- 
mainder of indwelling sin upon the memory of the Christian 
soul, springs a large proportion of his spiritual trials and his 
spiritual disasters. From the Spirit’s influence on the 
memory springs a large proportion of his spiritual comforts 
and his spiritual usefulness. As the Holy Ghost leads the 
awakened and convicted sinner forward, he takes of the say- 
ing offices, work, and love of Christ, and shows them to the 
agitated soul. Then he receives and rests upon the Saviour 
for salvation. He is full of peace; Christ is at last under- 
stood and trusted; joy animates the discharge of duty, and 
nerves the struggle with sin. The plan of salvation shines 
glorious in its simplicity and complete adaptations. Faith 
appears so easy and so effective. This happy frame con- 
tinues for a time; but, alas! it soon passes; and now the whole 
scene is changed. All becomes obscure and difficult. Faith 
becomes as much of a mystery as before it revealed its 
power in the heart. The tried soul wonders what has be- 
come of all its sweet views, and its blest contentment. In 
vain the effort to recall them; but in that dear shape in 
which it once appeared no struggle can bring it back. 
What peaceful hours I once enjoyed ; 
How sweet their memory still; 


But they have left an aching void 
The world can never fill. 


But now let the Holy Spirit touch the springs of memory 
with an effective touch, and these blessed things of Christ 
are restored again. They had vanished through some dis- 
astrous change in the affections; from some neglect from 
some positive faultiness; and the return comes through the 


au i GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


Spirit’s touch, memory, and the powers allied with it; or 
sometimes this process may be reversed, and the heart 
quickened by new views of the truth as it is in Jesus; new in 
some aspects, though familiar in others. The touch of the 
Spirit on the memory often brings back melting and re- 
joicing views of the great High Priest, the Prophet, and 
King of the covenant. When the real significance of the 
priesthood of Christ is opened up by the clear shining of the 
Holy Ghost on some clear exposition of the power of his 
blood, the efficacy of his priestly prayers, and the subduing 
charm of his priestly tenderness towards sinners, then the 
way of escape unseals its sufficiency so as to banish every 
fear, and fill the heart with joy. The very memory of such 
an apprehension of the truth is sweet and full of comfort 
long after it has passed away in the smoke and strife of 
many a succeeding battle. David remembered the hill 
Mizar as the scene of some such rich experience. But the 
actual restoration of them to the full experience of the heart 
and memory is unsurpassed in consoling power. It is no 
small enhancement of the Spirit’s value to the Christian soul 
that he can at will retouch these memories of a favored past, 
and cause them to renew in a favored present the joy of by- 
gone grace. He can take of all the gracious things of Christ 
and show them unto us, either by giving us new views of the 
old glory, or by bringing them back upon the memory in all 
the charm of their original delight. He thus sometimes 
brings back in a time of conflict or deep distress some par- 
ticular truth, some promise, some warning, some passage of 
Scripture just suited to the emergency. The word of God is 
the sword of the Spirit; the weapon by which he makes war 
on all kinds of spiritual evil. A memory stored with the 
words of Holy Writ is an arsenal well stocked with the arms 
of the holy warfare. While it would be presumption to 
expect the Holy Ghost to give any new revelation for the 
benefit of any one of his saints, however beloved, it is not 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. 373 


presumption, but imperative duty, to expect and seek him to 
quicken memory, and bring up out of its mysterious depths 
some truth of the word he has already given, suited to an 
emergency of sorrow or temptation. He may be appealed 
to to rouse the memory of sweet promises, when the shades 
of death are thickening over a dying saint, or when a dread 
emergency is lifting its horrid head across the pathway of a 
living saint. The offices of the Spirit himself are very 
gracious and very powerful; these, too, are subject to his 
quickening influences on our dull apprehensions. When he 
said that he would not speak of himself, we have already 
seen he did not mean to declare he would not teach anything 
at all of himself, either in the Scriptures or in the hearts of 
his people. He has said enough of his own loving spirit and 
eracious offices to awaken intense gratitude in those who 
apprehend his grace. The very riches and vehement glory 
of that grace are enough to oppress our feeble powers of 
conceiving and retaining them. But he can show us his 
glory in proportions suited to our capacity ; and we all might 
be far wealthier than we are in these rich apprehensions of 
the love of the Spirit if we would set ourselves to seek his 
sifts more freely. He can take of his own glorious grace, as 
well as of the unsearchable riches of Christ and the father- 
hood of the eternal Father, and show unto us many a hidden 
mine of infinite grace in each and all of them. 

The spirit of prayer is also powerfully controlled by the 
influence of the Spirit upon the memory. It is often amaz- 
ing to see how quickly our own apprehensions of our own 
abiding spiritual necessities fade out from our minds. A 
keen state of eager yearning will sometimes seem to vanish 
in an hour. Deep feeling of spiritual destitution will quickly 
give way to a sort of despairing hardness. Ardent solicitude 
for others, longings for the well-being of the church, and for 
the salvation of sinners, will give way like the fast-changing 
colors of a sunset. The feeling of obligation, as well as the 


Sit GiFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


desire to pray for others, for the spread of the kingdom, for 
the revival of religion in a particular community, or the sal- 
vation of particular persons, is subject to this rapid and por- 
tentous vicissitude. Our forgetfulness of such things would 
soon become dangerously complete if it were not for the 
work of the Spirit as a reminder. He keeps the regenerate 
soul alive to its own necessities and its duties, far enough as 
to secure something like habitual solicitude to be at peace 
with God, the habitual use of the means of grace, and the 
reputable discharge of appointed duties. The point in which 
his gracious influence upon memory allows of great advance- 
ment, subject largely to the saint’s own desires and faithful 
efforts, is in this relation between his sympathies and the 
wants of others. He can quicken this habitual, but low- 
toned and comparatively inactive recollection of the spiritual 
wants of others into a spirit of keen appreciation, leading 
to intense desire and to energy of action. Such an influence 
would be an incalculable blessing to the regenerate soul 
itself, and to all the interests which can be affected by his 
faith, his prayers, and his active labor—a blessing which 
would strongly illustrate the value of the Spirit as a re- 
minder. Without it no sinner would ever know the saving 
force of the truth he has learned, never appreciate danger or 
remedy, never be able to form a just judgment of the value 
of the life that now is compared with the value of that which 
is to come; never comprehend his position under the law 
and government of God, nor under his grace. Without it 
the Christian, though once acquainted with his necessities, 
would soon lose sight of them. Though once made to re- 
joice in the apprehension of Christ as a Saviour, he would 
soon lose the sweetness and joy of that glorious vision. The 
whole gospel would die out of the apprehension of the 
church; the very intellectual knowledge of Christian truth 
would perish, as more than one grand melancholy example in 
its history has proved. The doctrines of the covenant would 


| 
; 


THE SPIRIT AS A REMINDER. O19 


lose their priceless meaning; prayer would vanish into a 
thin, unreal observance; God himself would pass into a mere 
abstraction; the promises would become blank checks in 
invisible writing, which no flame of fire, no cunning of artful 
science, could restore to vision. The glorious gospel would 
be turned into a legendary tale, and the golden gates of the 
eternal city, far-shining in the distant clouds, would die be- 
fore the longing eyes of the saints, under the rushing dark- 
ness of despairing hope, like the rubied clouds on the vault 
of evening perish under the gray shadows of the fast-coming 
night. 

But the truth stands; it will not perish from the view of a 
dying world. The Spirit will keep all the precious words of 
the Redeemer in remembrance. This gracious pledge was 
not fulfilled and then antiquated and thrown out of service 
when the writers of the sacred books had, under the hand of 
the Holy Ghost, recalled the words and acts of the Messiah, 
and fixed them in an imperishable record. That pledge is 
still a working truth for the encouragement of every sinner 
and for the comfort of every saint. To the one he can still 
bring back the healthful knowledge of his sin in order that 
he may repent, and still bestow the healthful knowledge oi 
the way of life that he may believe. To the other he can 
renew all their past experiences of grace, and lead them 
forward to still richer and higher realizations of the great 
salvation. He can restore and vivify the spirit of faith and 
the spirit of prayer. He can illumine the promises until 
they glow with a richer wealth than a king’s ransom. He 
can make and keep the watchful soul of a believer all alive 
to its duties and its dangers, its wants ana its resources, its 
privileges and its endless glory. He can do a mighty work 
for a lost world and a struggling church by bringing into a 
living remembrance all the words the great Giver of eternal 


life has spoken, and all the great deeds he has done. 


Cer alee tyeex sit 
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘‘Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for 
the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to 
God for me.”— Paul to the Romans. 


HE absolute dependence of a sinner for regeneration, 
and of the regenerate soul for the exercise, the com- 

fort, and the availability of his regenerate gifts, on the influ- 
ences of the Holy Ghost, will be taken as something of a 
discouragement unless guarded from misapprehension of the 
real truth involved in the case. The sinner frequently makes 
it an excuse for his idleness, and his refusal to use the means 
of grace. It is often cited by the enemies of the evangelical 
faith of Christians, as an argument against the doctrine of 
grace, that it cuts the nerves of energy and logically dis- 
counts the value of all human effort. But this objection in 
the mouth of a sinner only lies in his mind so long as his 


view of his own necessities is dull and incompetent. Just 
eon ceo, 


let his mind wake up to the » real nature of the facts in the 
‘case; let him realize the - peril « of his position; and he will 
no aaa make his dependence on the Spirit an excuse for 
inaction. Nay, more, just in proportion as his own efforts 
fail to give him relief, and he feels his need of help, he will 
only be all the more solicitous to gain any help he can find. 
He then finds out that his dependence on the Spirit, so far 
from warranting his inactivity, was the very thing to rouse him 
to action by placing help in his reach when his own exer- 
tions had failed. The difference in the matter is, that in the 
first case he did not understand his dependence, nor realize 
his own infirmity, and in the advanced portion of his experi- 
ence he did fully comprehend both. The objection in the 
376 


ee 


— ee oe ee ee 


rate 


THE Love oF THE Sprrit. SHE 


lips of a speculative opponent of the doctrine of grace springs 
from the same root—the ignorance of the real necessities of 
a sinful soul. When he denies the dependence of such a 
soul on the influences of the Spirit. he consistently denies 
the actual ruin of a fallen moral nature. As long as this is 
done, no matter by whom or on what pretext, there is no 
prospect of a gospel salvation. 

The same feeling is sometimes found measurably discount 
aging the Christian. Whenever it does, it is due to careless 
living, and the consequent darkening of the gospel ideas 
before eyes dimmed by sin. The influence of the Spirit is 
the very provision made in the covenant to give success to 
prayer, to develope the whole series of the regenerate graces, 
and to unseal the gladness and comfort of the gospel; and, 
therefore, instead of being a discouragement to the feeble or 
back-slidden Christian, is the very thing which warrants him 
to hope, and animates him to energy in seeking for the re- 
storation of his peace. It is equally advantageous to the 
eager and watchful Christian, yearning after stronger graces 
and more assured hope; for if the Spirit was not available 
for his help in seeking these ends, it would be vain to desire 
or expect them. To break down all this feeling of discour- 
agement, and to replace it by the feeling properly excited by 
the offices of the Holy Ghost, we design to open one single 
consideration, which in itself alone is sufficient to accomplish 
this purpose, and to lead both the regenerate and the unre- 
generate soul to find encouragement instead of discourage- 
ment in their dependence on the Holy Ghost. We pass by 
the consideration of the official work assigned to him in the. 
economy of redemption, and his zeal for the glory of the 
Godhead ; we pass all references to his power or his faithful- 
ness, although all these are powerful inducements to confide 
in him. We simply fix attention on the love of the Spirit; 
his infinite and tender personal affections towards the sin- 
ners of the human race; his great pity and compassion to- 


378 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


wards the victims of their sin; his delight in his work of 
bringing them to pardon, to peace, to the rest of heaven, and 
to the whole manifestation of the unsearchable riches, the 
freedom, and the resolute tenacity of his grace towards them. 

1. Love is the emphatic attribute of God; it is that qual- 
ity in his character which under one of its manifestations 
leads him to distribute good, not for any increase to his own 
blessedness, already perfect, but simply to widen the range of 
happiness in other beings beside himself. This attribute is 
so masterly an element in his infinitely complete being 
that it defines his nature and gives him his name, “ God is 
love.” It was this which prompted him to create; it was, at 
least, one of his ends; it is this that regulates his whole plan 
of creation, his whole policy of administration. Like all his 
other attributes, it is literally infinite in its strength, in its 
tenderness, in its patience, in its bounteous fertility, in its 
eagerness to bless. The large-hearted spirit of a benevolent 
man is a noble quality. The love in the heart of a great 
angel is a still higher form of the sweet and magnanimous 
feeling. As you rise in the conception of intellectual and 
moral being, this quality, an essential constituent of moral 
excellence, expands proportionally on the view. But in God 
it exists in the highest degree it can possibly reach; love 
cannot exist, nor any other conceivable excellence, in a higher 
or more perfect form than it exists in God; in him it is liter- 
ally infinite, This lovely quality in him overpasses every 
conceivable or possible modification of it in any other being, 
actual or possible, as far as the infinite passes beyond the 
finite. God is love, and the Spirit is God; and our first step 
in the effort to form some notion of the love of the Spirit 
places us face to face with the fact that love in its illimitable 
and divine degree is his intrinsic, essential, and unchange- 
able attribute. 

2. The love of God takes on its most wonderful and pecu- 
har form in its application to senners. He is infinitely holy; 


SF gored abe 


Lae le 


a ee ee ee, 


THE Love oF THE Spirit. 379 


a sinner is a being morally polluted. To him this pollution 
is an essential horror and disgust. He is infinitely just; a 
sinner as a breaker of law is criminal, a being on whom 
justice has a claim, a claim to punish his criminal conduct; 
and God is bound by eternal rightness to do justice, no 
matter what justice may demand. Yet the loving-kindness 
of the just and holy one goes out upon sinners. The 
impulse is altogether what the impulse of love always is, to 
do them good. The instinctive feeling which springs up in 
a sinning soul is dread of God, because he is just, a being 
whose judgment must be graduated by the nature of the fact 
before him, and who must therefore seek to requite an evil 
with a result naturally and justly answerable to it. Such a 
result is necessarily the opposite of a benefit to the trans- 
gressor. ‘his seems to present an issue on which a collision 
ensues between his love seeking a benefit to the sinner and 
his justice prohibiting it. But when the love of God takes 
on that peculiar modification which is called grace, the very 
thing which distinguishes it from every other modification of 
divine benignity is s¢x. How it could be brought into har- 
mony with the claims of justice and holiness is the great 
wonder in the divine nature. This is that, as then, unknown 
and inconceivable mystery in the just and holy one, whose 
sudden display in the day of Adam’s fall confounded the 
murderous archangel, and filled all heaven with wonder and 
delight. That God should love sinners and let loose on 
them all the tides of that infinite quality in his nature—on 
those who were an offence to his holiness, and the objects of 
his inflexibly righteous and true justice—this was the mystery 
of mysteries. Yet it was done, and it was so done that no 
claim of justice was sacrificed, no demand of holiness failed 
of full contentment. The redemption from the claims of justice 
was committed to the love of the Son; and we know how a 
dying Saviour redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being 
madeacurse forus. The redemption from the inward power 


380 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


and pollution of sin in the soul was committed to the love of 
the Spirit. The love of the Father shone glorious in the pro- 
posal and contrivance of the whole wondrous plan. The erand 
sum of all the marvelous policy was this wonderful assurance 
to sinners of the human family, that the dove of the whole 
Godhead, the love of the Father, the love of the Son, and 


the love of Spirit, the whole energy of an infinite attribute of 


love, was now turned loose, free from every restraint, armed 
with infinite power, and fully supported by infinite holiness, 
justice, and truth, to walk all the wards of the sin-sick soul, 
to gave sinners at its own will. The love of the Son, the 
Paraclete for sin, confronts* the miseries of guilt; the love of 
the Spirit, the Paraclete for all inward wants, confronts all 
the weakness and the wickedness in the soul. If, therefore, 
any sinner, seeking for peace and assured safety, is discour- 
aged by the strength of the evil within him, and is dreaming 
of first accomplishing some preliminary purification within 
himself ere he will be fit to ground any appeal for help, let 
him endeavor to take in the meaning of the offices and the 
loving-tenderness of the Holy Spirit, who has charge of that 
work. It is only necessary to appeal to his power as the 
agent of the royal Saviour. If, therefore, any discouraged 
Christian, oppressed by conscious sins; by unbelief; by a 
hard heart; by a quick temper; by an unmastered over- 
eagerness after worldly good; by any sin, is yet anxious to 
overcome these faults, let him not dream that he must wait to 
get the better of them before he applies for the grace of the 
Spirit; let him come at once for the grace to overcome them. 
If any eager Christian soul, sick of the infirmities, the weak 
eraces, the mutilated comforts, the ineffective prayers, the 
whole imperfect service of his low and feeble spiritual de- 
velopment, desires to attain unto better things, let him at 
once renew his courage, and appeal to the Comforter. His 
infinite and most tender love has been put in charge of 


———— 


el) OL Ah ade 


seh pendant nse i i cmt ite Nant a ail ras hy eer (eg 


ee es ee eae ee ee 


rr ba * 


THE LOVE oF THE Spier. 381 


all the inward work needful to the healing of a sinful 
soul. 

3. The love of the Spirit is displayed in a more or less 
effective way, literally wpon all sinners in restraining the 
natural growth of their depravity and in thus limiting the 
desolating effects of it. He exerts a restraint upon every 
heathen soul, sufficient at least to preserve the moral element 
in human nature from being utterly eclipsed, and to make 
society, civilization, domestic life, and civil law possible. 
Sin is a powerful energy;,it works towards all its natural 
results with a swift, relentless determination. It corrupts 
and breaks the force of the instinctive moral sentiments; it in- 
flames the passions; it pollutes the whole nature of the sin- 
ning actor. Through this evil influence on himself it affects 
all the relations of the man—his social, domestic, business, 
and political relations. A certain amount of good moral 
sentiments, a sense of moral obligation, a perception of truth, 
honor, and justice, are necessary to bind the social structure 
together and make it workable, to make homes possible and 
trade possible, and all the interchanges and connections be- 
tween men possible. But for the secret restraints of the 
Holy Spirit sin would have long ago broken up all human 
associations, and not only ruined civilization, but swept the 
human race from the face of the earth in the torrents of their 
own vices and crimes. To the love of the Spirit it is due 
that any man enjoys every benefit, every joy, every right, every 
comfort which the old and vast heathen peoples have ever 
possessed. To it it is due that there is such a thing as a 
respectable man, a being with any effective moral ideas, to 
be found anywhere. He alone prevents the utter depravation 
and ruin of the moral element in human nature, and preserves 
the mighty interests which are conditioned upon its preser- 
vation in some sufficient degree of serviceable working order. 

4. The love of the Spirit is still more wonderfully dis- 
played in his dealings with sinners generally under the gospel 


382 Guirts To BELIEVERS. 


dispensation. The two great agencies in the conversion of 
sinners are, the truth revealed in the gospel, and the concur- 
rent influences of the Holy Spirit. The truth alone is 
powerless to save; the Spirit, as a rule, only operates in 
connection with the truth. But wherever the truth comes 
the Spirit comes. Wherever the truth is neglected’ or re- 
pudiated the Spirit ceases to strive. But on whatever ear 
the truth falls the Spirit makes his way into the conscience 
and the heart. If he ever suspends his influence in con- 
nection with the truth, it is because the truth has been 
abused, and his own incitements to obey it have been pre- 
sumptuously resisted. The glad tidings never fell on the ear 
of harlot, or gambler, or thief, or murderer, that the Holy 
Spirit did not enter, or endeavor to enter, the darkened and. 
crime-haunted heart. He is always resisted, met at the 
threshhold and rudely rebuffed. Satan and his satellites, 
viewless and unsuspected, are always leading on the unholy 
soul, quickening its evil impulses, stimulating its passions, 
obscuring the influence of healthful views, laying snares for 
the willing feet, mocking at suggestions of danger. Gaily 
the victim advances, seeing nothing but pleasant things in 
his lawless career. But the loving Spirit steps across his path, 
and lays his gentle hand on the deluded wanderer. Instantly 
blows are struck at him. The tempting angels put forth all 
their skill and cunning. The poor foolish lover of his own 
wild will pulls back from the loving hand of the Deliverer. But 
he will not yield; he makes his way in; and there, amid the 
darkness and the stench of excited carnal passions, his reso- 
lute tenderness, for days, and weeks, and months, and some- 
times for years together, struggles for a foothold. Sometimes 
he will yield and go his way; sometimes to return and renew 
the conflict; and only at the last will he take his final flight, 
and abandon Ephraim to his idols. What a scene is this 
conflict of the Holy Spirit with the unholy passions of a 
human heart and the watchful angels of the abyss! What 


Tue Love orf THE Sprrirt. 383 


wickedness on one side; what grace on the other! What 
infinite love; what sweet “ithe; what eager compassion; what 
heroic meaerice: what resolute Rania what divine loving- 
kindness, does the love of the Spirit alse in this strife ti 
and for an unconverted sinner! Yet thishe shows in ereater 
or less degree to every sinner to whom the gospel message 
comes. He shows it even to those who, he knows, will fight 
him to the bitter end. He shows the infinite love of his sweet 
compassion, not only to those who will yield to him, but to 
those who will go on in their sins, and down into the pit at 
last. No words can tell the tale of the love of the Spirit, 
even to the most unholy and reckless of disobedient men. 

5. But the love of the Spirit takes on its sweetest and 
most charming form in his dealings with those whom he 
resolves to regenerate and save. All without exception resist 
him; some he abandons to their own devices after a long 
and desperate conflict; but some he determines to conquer. 
Not because they are better or more worthy, but solely be- 
cause of his own sovereign and distinguishing grace, because 
for reasons in his own wise and sovereign counsels his love 
burns for them into a higher and an intenser flame! He 
puts forth his strength; he rouses their fears, and intensifies 
their convictions of their sin until resistance is overmastered. 
He teaches them to pray in passionate earnestness; he makes 
them keenly desire his aid now, and to find the way to 
Christ. He gives them experimental knowledge of their own 
perversity, blindness, hardness of heart, and their helpless- 
ness in the dreadful strait. He keeps them under lights 
which reveal the delusions under which they have hitherto 
lived and acted. He overwhelms them by such a conscious- 
ness of their guilt, danger, and need of a Saviour, as to pre- 
pare them to appreciate the deliverance and the Deliverer 
offered to them. He breaks down all their self-righteous 
excuses. He then makes plain the way of salvation; he 
leads them to Jesus; he gives them the faith which is the fruit 


384 GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


of the Spirit, and they pass within the muniments of the 
covenant of life. This act of regeneration is the first step in 
this peculiar manifestation of the love of the Spirit to the 
saints. Now comes the highest and most impressive of all 
its wonderful displays.- It is called the indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost. It is always shown to every regenerate soul ; 
-it is begun in the act of regeneration which opens the way 
to his permanent occupation of the soul now pledged to 
eternal life by the act of faith in the Saviour. Until then 
his entry into the unholy heart, and his contact with all its 
pollutions, has been at will, not under the bond of any cove- 
nant engagement, most freely entered, most binding when 
made. He was free to leave as he was to enter before the 
terms of mercy were closed. The offer is, Believe, and thou 
shalt be saved; and when the regenerate soul puts forth the 
act of faith the covenant is closed, and that happy spirit 
stands in new and invincible relations with the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost. The promise to faith is a pledge 
of an absolute salvation, a salvation from sin as well as from 
its consequences. Its sacred assurance is, Sin shall not have 
dominion over you. This is not a pledge that all sin shall be 
destroyed at once and the soul made perfectly holy. If that 
were so, there would be no place for the peculiar display of 
the love of the Spirit to the saints; for he would then have 
a holy and a pleasant place to occupy. The promise secures 
a full conquest’ over all sin in the end, but only that sin 
shall not be master in the progress towards the end. Sin 
shall not have dominion; but this implies that sin shall still 
have a standing, and exert an influence, until the end of the 
natural life puts a period to the presence and the mischiefs 
of moral evil. 

It will be impossible for us to appreciate suitably the un- 
searchable love of the Holy Spirit as involved in his indwell- 
ing in the saints, until we can form some conception of the 
state of a regenerate soul, in which the law of grace in the 


5 
Z 


THE Love oF THE Sprrtr. 385 


mind is perpetually confronted by the law of sin in the mem- 
bers. It is a scene of conflict, not of peace; a scene of evil 
as well as good, for the grace given is living grace, and 
the remaining sin is real sin, a power broken, but not de- 
stroyed; weakened, but still formidable; wounded, but still 
capable of long and desperate strife even against the Spirit 
of the living God. Into that chequered scene in every fe- 
generate heart that holy agent enters to make good the 
pledge of the covenant, sin shall not have the mastery. 
He enters it not as a wayfarer who turneth to tarry but 
a night. He enters it to dwell there; he enters it as his 
home; he enters it as his workshop, the chosen place where 
his wonderful achievements are to be accomplished. He 
enters it under a covenant promise, more durable than the 
everlasting hills, to stay there and never to abandon it, until 
his work is done and the covenant with the believer is ful- 
filled. If he left, all would be undone. But the bond and 
security of his holding his place is the strongest that can 
be conceived; the faithfulness and the pledged veracity and 
honor of the whole Godhood, Father, Son, and Spirit. His 
love and zeal rejoice to confirm the grand guarantees of the 
covenant and the divine integrity. The very throne and life 
of the sovereign and immortal God stand not on a firmer 
basis, or under a more absolute assurance, than the perma- 
nence of the Spirit’s indwelling in the regenerate human 
heart. But to appreciate the love, the faithfulness, and the 
delight of the Spirit in his work, we must comprehend the 
place where he dwells, and the nature of his activity in it. 
As already said, the power of sin is broken, but the evil still 
abides. It is there, with all the elements and particular 
evils which sin involves, just as it was before. The lusts of 
the eye and the pride of life still linger, weakened, but not 
destroyed ; the new law is infused, a new energy is created in 
opposition to these evils, and a perpetual collision is inaugu- 
rated. But sin is still there, and sin is an infinite offence 
20 


386 Carre TO BELIEVERS. 


to a holy being, even when lying quiet and inactive; it is 
far more so when stirred into activity. Just as a foul pool 
shows nauseous to sight, and emits its odors slowly and 
faintly when in repose, but becomes far more offensive to 
eye and nostril when stirred out of its stillness. The Holy 
Spirit goes into a regenerate heart to dwell in the midst 
of sin, in habitual presence, and often in fierce activity. 
The Scripture symbols of a sinful heart are absolutely 
fearful: darkness, stony hardness, a cage of unclean birds, a 
den of serpents, a lonely cottage in the stillness of a desert, 
within whose swept and garnished walls, eight devils, su- 
preme in wickedness, are holding an infernal revel, and 
making the midnight wilderness hideous with their appall- 
ing and malicious glee. This is the home of the Holy Spirit. 
By his side within the dreadful walls that “new man” he 
has created in Christ Jesus stands confronting the awful 
array in the armed attitude of watchful war—war to the belt- 
knife. See the pale, resolute face of the spiritual man, 
crossed often by pangs of mortal fear, or wrenched with 
agony at some sly serpent bite, or pierced by some devil's 
poisoned arrow or fiery dart, or anon stupefied and stiffened 
by some foul blast of air, or the touch of some foul wing, as 
the unclean birds slip through the shadows. Ah! can he 
win; can he come safe out of such a scene? Look at the 
grand figure at his side. The Spirit of the living God is 
dwelling with him and is in him; he is on guard. He is 
sitting in the fixed posture of one who has come to stay. 
He kindles a gentle light, which qualifies the murky dark- 
ness, and shows the lurking figures of the hostile forces. 
His glorious face beams with serene peace, and kindles with 
infinite loving tenderness, as he supplies all needed strength 
and comfort to the tried and wearied soldier at his side. 
Now and then his mighty hand is stretched forth, and a 
stroke of sword or hammer falls on some over-insolent intru- 
der, and at the touch the devils crouch and whine, the ser- 


Sn ekg nc iblehaigaann ie 


st ga het her DP 


\<? @2e. 9 Ogee ei eet, ae, 


Tue LOVE oF THE SPrIrIt. 387 


pents writhe and twist, and the foul birds droop wing or 
slumber. Now and then he pours a fresher and a stronger 
grant of grace into his weary charge, and then songs in the 
night ring cheerily in the beleaguered fortress of the re- 
generate soul. So it goes until the end; but the victory 
is assured by the presence of the divine indwelling Spirit. 
In one sense his perils are great; in another his safety is 
absolute. In one sense his trials are awful; in another his 
blessedness is unspeakable. His danger is in himself; for 
these vultures, serpents, and devils, which the poverty of 
human thought and words compel us to represent as in him, 
but distinct from him, are his own unholy energies and pas- 
sions. His safety is in the blood and righteousness of Jesus, 
in the fatherhood and faithfulness of the Father, and in the 
presence and love of the Holy Ghost. But this scene of the 
Spirit on guard ‘in a regenerate heart compels the question, 
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly 
and sinner appear? The same awful company are in his 
heart, but no indwelling Spirit of grace is found there to 
oppose and subdue the deadly mischief. The answer to the 
question asked can only be, they will appear the ruined 
victims of the infernal garrison; they will appear on the left 
hand of the judgment throne; they will appear in the long 
line of the devil’s captives, moving down to the iron gates; 
they will appear in the final scene riding on the waves of the 
lake of fire; for they have grieved and repelled the Holy 
Spirit, and he did not dwell in them. But his victorious 
love will finally exterminate the birds, and serpents, and 
devils of an unholy heart, and the soul, delivered by the 
love of the Spirit, will appear on the right hand of the 
Judge, on the highway to the gates of pearl, in the long 
procession of the King’s ransomed, and on the sweet fields 
by the river of life forever. All their fitness for this high 
destiny will be due to the love of the Spirit; their title to 
it, to the love of the Son; their opportunity for gaining both 


388 Gifts TO BELIEVERS. 


title and fitness, to the love of the Father. Salvation is all 
of grace. 

6. The love of the Spirit is also powerfully illustrated by 
that delight in all his official work, in all its general and 
special acts in the regenerate soul, which 1s assured by that love 
itself. Love delights in its own exercises and its own offices. 
Tt would seem that such a constant dwelling in such a devil-_ 
haunted cottage in a wilderness, as we have just described, 
might afford room for the exhibition of the faithfulness and 
power of the Holy Spirit, but could hardly allow of his find- 
ing any delight in it. Perhaps this will account for the gen- 
eral recognition of the fidelity and strength of the Spirit, 
and the equally general scanty recognition of his love, the 
unspeakable tenderness and freedom of his grace.* But we 
are emphatically assured of his love; and this certifies that 
his delight in fulfilling the will and counsel-of the Godhead 
in his work in the saints is fully equal to the delight which 
the Son found in doing his part, and the Father in his. Al- 
though the Holy Comforter finds an amount of offence, which 
no mortal mind can conceive, in the pollutions of a soul only 
partially purified, yet, in spite of all, his loving heart finds an 
infinite complacency and delight in the work which he enters 
that heart to do. He is there on a mission of cleansing and 
healing; and he delights to do it. He is there to accomplish 
the grandest enterprise of the counsels of God; and he de- 
lights to accomplish it. He is there to defeat the malignant 
counsels of the kingdom of darkness; and he delights to do 
it. He is there to save millions of immortal spirits from 
an unimaginable ruin for eternal ages; and he glories in 
the mighty undertaking. He delights in the exercise of 
his glorious energies, in the indulgence of his infinite ten- 
derness, in every part and specialty of his glorious office. 
He delights to awaken and arrest sinners as they are 
dancing along, devil-led, on the primrose path to the ever- 


* Phillip of Maberly. 


iA 
/ 


V 


THe LovE oF THE SPIRIT. 389 


lasting bonfire. He delights in raising the dead soul to 
life by his regenerating grace, as Jesus delighted his own 
sad, loving heart in raising Lazarus, and in turning -the sor- 
rows of the Bethany home, which he loved so dearly, into 
songs of rejoicing. He delights in teaching the dim eyes of 
his children to see all the things of Christ. He rejoices to 
seal, anoint, testify, lead, intercede, and give the earnest of 
the Spirit. He delights in all his work. He is never idle; 
never reluctant; never churlish in doing it. He is the Com- 
forter, and delights in comforting; he is the universal Para- 
clete of his people, and delights for them to call him to their 
side in any of their times of need. | 

The love of the Spirit gives the full assurance of the abso- 
lute freedom and completeness of our access to the gracious 
influences of the Spirit. It is just as free an access as we 
have to the unsearchable riches of the love and redemption 
work of the Saviour himself. The symbols of both are the 
wide, free winds of heaven, sweeping every inch of ground in 
a continent, stirring every leaf in the forests, and every blade 
of grass in the fields; and second, the water, covering two- 
thirds or more of the planet in its oceans, piercing every 
section with its running streams, every nook in wood or 
mountain with its springs and falling rains, and entering as a 
principal factor into the composition of well-nigh everything 
that exists—vegetable, mineral, or animal. These are the 
symbols of the love and free grace of the blessed Spirit. This 
love on his part stands side by side with the command of the 
Father, and the pleading love of the Son, and unites with 
these in giving the grand assurance to every needy sinner, 
and especially to every yearning Christian heart, touching 
that wide and welcome privilege they have to appeal for any 
srant of faith, hope, clear vision, holy affections, of guid- 
ance, strength, patience, love, comfort, for any grace they 
may néed. No regenerate sinner need want for any comfort 
in life or death; no unregenerate sinner need stay in the 


390 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


peril or bond of his sin for a single hour, since we all have 
such free access to the power and the tender love of the 
Spirit. That love is so marked with every high and winning 
quality of love in its infinite and unsurpassable form; it is a 
love so distinguished by its tenderness, by its infinite sweet- 
ness, by its grand energy, by its absolute fidelity and trust- 
worthiness, by its tender, unweariable patience, by its wise 
and resolute faithfulness to every interest entrusted to it, by 
its zeal and fervor, by its boundless power, by its delight in 
allits work, by its complacency in all its glorious results—that 
there is really no excuse for any poverty or slackness of 
either strength or comfort in the gifts of the Spirit. He is 
so necessary to us, to our trust in the Son, to our confidence 
in the Father, to our reliance on himseif; he is so essential 
to our success in prayer, to our understanding and compli- 
ance with the terms of mercy, to the guarantees of our hope, 
to the soundness of our graces; he is so important to our 
safety in temptation, to our comfort in affliction, to our sat- 
isfaction in life, to our usefulness in service, to our support 
in death; in a word, so vast and absolute 1s our dependence 
on the influences of the Holy Ghost that we need every pos- 
sible encouragement to go to him. That encouragement is | 
given by this wonderful love of the Spirit in as complete a 
degree as need be hoped or desired. Infinite love, and in- 
finite delight in his work, discount all fear of refusal in 
appealing for his grace. 


CHAPTER XIII. 
THE SPIRIT IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 


‘‘For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and re- 
joice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”—Pawul to the 
Philippians. 


HE worship of God in private and in public, as it is 
prescribed in the Scriptures, requires our active atten- 

tion always to the two grand divisions into which the service 
has been divided: the visible or tangible instruments to be 
used, and the effective power which is to be appealed to in 
the use of these instruments. In considering the worship of 
God and the surest means of benefit from it, it 1s necessary 
to recognize the outward ordinances as the only authorized 
method of our approaching him, and the only means by 
which we may expect his favor in benefits to ourselves. 
This dictates due care to have the ordinances as exactly con- 
formed to the requirements of the law as it is possible to 
secure them. It is also indispensable to apprehend clearly, 
and then to act practically, on this knowledge of the corre- 
lated Scripture doctrine of the only agent and efficacious 
power by which the divinely-appointed ordinances can be 
made effectual. There can be no acceptable worship except 
in the use of those ordinances and actions in employing 
them which God himself has appointed. No man, or organ- 
ized body of men, has a right to invent any action for the 
worship of God, and to challenge his blessing on the use of 
it. He would lay himself open to the cutting question, 
“Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts” 
therewith? -Every earthly monarch claims the right to settle 
the etiquette of his own court, the dress and acts of homage 
and ceremony by which strangers and his own servants are to 

391 


392 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


approach the royal presence. To alter those prescriptions — 
for others entirely different, or to make changes by addition 
or subtraction in the prescribed forms, would be considered 
an invasion of the king’s right, and a personal affront to his 
majesty. Much more has the King of kings the right to 
order the etiquette of his court, and the acts by which he 
would be approached. His ordinances must be observed, as 
nearly as possible, according to his own prescriptions, with- 
out additions to or subtractions from them. But the teach- 
ing of the Scriptures is unequivocally clear, that even the 
ordinances appointed of God have no power in themselves 
alone to work the needful effects on the soul of the wor- 
shipper, unless accompanied by the efficacious influences of 
the Holy Spirit. The gospel must come, not in word only, 
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Our pre- 
sent object, however, is not to illustrate the general doctrine 
of the relation of the Spirit to the ordinances of worship 
and the means of grace, but the particular doctrine of his 
relation to the public worship of God in the regular assem- 
blies of the people for Sabbath service. The assertion of 
the text is, that one characteristic mark of a true believer is 
that he ‘worships God in the spirit.” This includes all 
kinds of worship, whether secret, social, or public, whether in 
the use of prayer, or praise, or preaching, or sacraments, or 
any other ordinance. The presence and the exerted influ- 
ence of the Spirit is essential to the right and profitable use 
of them all. The special presence of the Holy Ghost, then, 
in the public assemblies for divine worship, 7s @ fact cer- 
tified to us in the word of God. The expression used by 
our Lord in reference to the Holy Spirit, “he dwelleth with 
you and shall be in you,” points to a distinction, which, per- 
haps, cannot be fully understood in its complete, actual ap- _ 
plication. But it evidently implies both a dwelling with and. 
a dwelling in the believer. The dwelling with has been 
applied, and with obvious propriety, to the presence of the 


THe Sprrit In Pupuic WorsHIP. 393 


Spirit in assemblies for worship, considered as wholes, as 
companies, or bodies, associated according to the divine re- 
quirement. His dwelling in has been stated, in contrast, as 
his presence in the soul of every individual worshipper, as 
the guide and animating influence of his personal feelings. 
The expressions do unquestionably embrace also a perpetual 
presence with and in the believer at all times, and not merely 
in connection with public worship. But as bearing on the 
matter of worship, the distinction evidently points to a pre- 
sence with, and yet outside the worshipper, and also to a 
distinct presence of the Spirit within the worshipper as the 
guide of his spirit in worshipping. We have no fear of be- 
ing far from the truth in saying that one of the meanings of 
these remarkable phrases refers directly to the presence of 
the Spirit in the assemblies for worship. He is no doubt a 
perpetual presence around as well as within the individual 
Christian. But he is also a perpetual presence in every 
Christian assembly. This last is the particular truth that 
invites our attention now: 

1. The first question which excites notice is, what is meant 
by this presence of the Holy Ghost in the Christian assem- 
bly? There is a sense in which he is necessarily present in 
such assemblies. He is God, and God is everywhere pre- 
sent. But in this sense he is present in a drinking or a 
gambling saloon as truly as in a church. In this sense his 
presence in an assembly for worship signifies no more than 
it signifies in the depths of an impenetrable forest, or in the 
cave of a mountain, or in the solitudes of a desert. In this 
sense, also, the Father and the Son are equally present. 
The presence of the Spirit in the Christian assembly must 
mean something more than this natural and necessary de- 
termination of his omnipresence. The analogy of similar 
conceptions of the divine presence may guide to the mean- 
ing. Although the divine being is everywhere present, he 
is frequently spoken of in the Scriptures as ‘coming,’ com- 


394 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


ing to a place or to a person, and for different purposes: 
“The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai.” “The Lord 
came down to see the city and the tower of Babel.” ‘The 
Lord met him and sought to kill him.” ‘He cometh to 
judge the earth.” It is obvious that all these forms of ex- 
pression about a being, naturally everywhere present, simply 


mean some peculiar manifestation of his presence for dif- 


ferent purposes, and the nature of the purpose in each case 
gives its peculiar coloring to the coming or presence which 
it qualifies. Thus when he comes in judgment, it is God 
manifesting himself in the actual infliction, or in his official 
announcement of his purpose to inflict his judicial ven- 
geance. When he comes or is present as the God of peace 
and love, he manifests himself in the grant of peace and in 
the expressions of his tender mercies. From these analogous 
forms of expressions it is safe to conclude that the peculiar 
presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian assemblies is 
the manifestation of that blessed agent in all the relations 
which he sustains to the worship of the church, and in such 
acts as he pleases to perform in the progress of the service. 
As God he is the object of the worship offered; but his pecu- 
liar relations to the worship, determined by the great cove- 
nant of salvation, present him prominently as the animating 
and guiding influence which controls the worship, and ena- 
bles its offering in an acceptable manner. 

It becomes clear, then, that the first in the official order 
of divine worship is the Holy Spirit, who enables the wor- 
shipper to offer his service in faith to the Son, who, as offi- 
cial priest, offers it to the Father. This priority, of course, 
implies no precedence of dignity or honor, but merely indi- 
cates the appointed official relation to the worship to be 
offered. The first of the three sacred and mysterious per- 
sons of the Godhead in meeting his worshippers is the Holy 
Spirit of God. The Christian dispensation is emphatically 
called “the dispensation of the Spirit”; it is so called from 


Tue Sprrit In Pusiic WorsHIP. 395 


the declared prominence given in the gospel to his part in 
the work of salvation. The Spirit meets the worshipper to 
prepare his approach, to enable him to exercise faith in the 
Saviour, and thus through the mediation of the Son, realized 
and secured in its gracious functions by faith, to approach 
the Father, and to call him Abba, in acceptable worship. To 
enable the worship of the Father through the Son, the Spirit 
takes the lead in the worship of the saints. No ordinance 
has any effective spiritual power, except as the Spirit glves 
it. No worshipper’s heart is ever in a proper frame for wor- 
ship, except as the Spirit gives it. Without faith itis impos- 
sible to please God, and there is no true faith except that 
which is the fruit of the Spirit. The great fact, then, which 
is presented to us in this doctrine of the relation of the Holy 
Spirit to the worship of the Christian assemblies, is one of 
very high and solemn significance, a fact that ought to be 
fruitful of constant and profound practical effects on all 
who assemble for divine worship. That fact is, that the 
Lord is in his holy temple, in a peculiar posture, waiting to 
meet them. The Holy Ghost is pervading every sanctuary 
where the assembly meets to worship the Father through 
the Son. How striking the conception when we fully master 
it! How solemn the thought! To what searching inspec- 
tion is the heart of every worshipper about to be subjected! 
The effects which this grand Christian doctrine ought to 
produce on the whole bearing and demeanor of those who 
come into the presence, and challenge his special attention 
by assuming the attitude and character of a worshipper, are 
go obviously those dictated by the immediate presence of 
such a being; they are so manifold in form, yet so strongly 
demanded by the fact, that it would hardly seem necessary 
to specify them. ~ 

9. Tt dictates that there should always be some suitable 
preparation of the thoughts and feelings before we leave our 
homes to attend public worship. We are going to meet the 


396 Guirts To BELIEVERS. 


Holy Ghost. If we were going to meet a king or any great 
person by his own invitation or command in his own palace, 
our anxiety would be keenly roused as to the propriety of 
our own demeanor in his presence. We should anxiously 
acquaint ourselves with the rules of etiquette to be observed. 
We should have our minds thoroughly purged of all listless- 
ness and indifference. We should be solicitous to do no- 
thing to forfeit his regard, or spoil our own welcome. If 
we went to solicit some favor or advantage for ourselves or 


others, we should prepare for the best presentment of our 
cause, and seek carefully to avoid everything which might 


hinder our success. To go into the special presence of the 
Holy Spirit without any recognition of it at all, with our 


minds in the same general attitude as if we were going into 


some secular assembly, with no feeling of reverence, with no 
quickened sense of obligation to wait before him in a suit- 
able frame of feeling, is to offend the obtrusive proprieties of 
the position. To confound an assembly for the worship of 


Almighty God with an assembly to listen to a lecture on art 


or a political address, is to annihilate the spirit and the con- 
ception of worship altogether. How keenly does this con- 
demn the prevailing spirit of our attendance on public 


worship. This utter practical ignoring of the radical idea of 


divine worship, and construing it as a mere Sunday assembly 
of the people, warranted by custom, but of no vital signifi- 
cance, is altogether sufficient to account for the chronic un- 
fruitfulness of ordinary Christian worship. No wonder the 
Spirit withholds his influences, and the ordinances are 
powerless, when his presence and the necessity for it in 
every Christian assembly for worship is so completely dis- 


counted. Let us fill our minds with the thought that we — 


are going to meet the Holy Ghost whenever we come to the 
sanctuary, and come with some suitable frame of thought 
and feeling. It is as incongruous in itself, and far more so 
in the degree of its impropriety, to come unprepared than to 


. 


“—— a 


Tue Sprrit In Pustic WorsHIP. 397 


come with studied or careless indifference into the presence 
of a king. 

3. A suitable, that is to say, a serious and even solemn 
impression that the Holy Ghost is in the house waiting for 
us, would change much in the demeanor of the people before 
the actual commencement of divine worship. They would 
have little or no inclination to gather together and exchange 
all sorts of ideas while waiting for the service to begin. A 
quiet grasp of friendly hands, a brief inquiry after mutual 
welfare, an expression of sympathy for an existing affliction, 
‘the necessary exchange of thought about church affairs, re- 
duced to briefest proportions, would precede a prompt 
entry into the sacred house. A diligent preparation of mind 
to enter into the impending service, before and after enter- 
ing, would become a prevailing and instinctive habit. The 
custom of lingering in protracted talks about all manner of 
secular things, even after the signal for service has been 
given, would become a thing of the past, and the disturbance 
of the actual worship by the sound of the late-comers hurrying 
to their places would soon be unknown. Listlessness and 
inattention, careless conversation in the house as well as out 
of it, would be abolished. The sentiment that the Holy 
Ghost was in the house, ready to search every heart to see 
what and how much desire was there for his blessing, and 
waiting to bestow his grace on all who really wanted it, would 
soon put an end to all this censurable carelessness. Our 
whole view of entering into the sanctuary would be power- 
fully modified by the grand thought of his holy presence, 
and all our behavior would be adjusted to it. Sleeping 
during the service, the study of costumes, and the critical 
observation of our fellow-worshippers, would be swallowed 
up by our proper conception of the presence of the Holy 
Ghost in the sanctuaries of Christian worship. 

4. The proper recognition of the presence of the Spirit in 
the sanctuary would suitably control that most difficult and 


398 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


dangerous question of dress in the Christian assembly. A 
certain limited class of people are censurably careless about 
their appearance. Another, a much more extensive class, err 
on the opposite extreme, and seem to regard the temples of 
the most High God as the chief theatre on which to display 
the splendors of fashion and the taste of its devotees. No 
earthly king would be pleased with either of these species of 
display in his presence. A sloven would be probably shown 
to the door, and a rich parvenu who should refuse the court 
dress ordered by court fashions for the king’s guests, and 


appear loaded with the ‘ostentatious pomp of overgrown © 


wealth, would scarcely meet with a warmer reception. Elab- 
orate dressing in the sanctuaries of God is a serious spiritual 
snare. It absorbs the thoughts; it raises the frivolous pas- 
sions; it distracts others; it excludes or deadens the impres- 
sion of the truth, and indicates a mind as dead to the presence 
and purposes of the presiding Spirit as it would be in a 
saloon or a courthouse. A certain simple dignity and pro- 
priety of dress, alike distant from carelessness and ostenta- 
tion, is alone suitable to the presence and aims of the Holy 
Ghost in the house of God. 

5. The presence of the Spirit as the guide and animating 
energy of the worship of the church ought to qualify pro- 
foundly all our use of the ordinances. These instruments 
are appointed of God in order that man, the worshipper, 
may be assured that his action in the use of these instru- 
ments is acceptable to him. The ordinances are, as it were, 
. trysting-places where the soul that seeks may find God. 
This meeting with God in the ordinances ought always to be 
definitely recognized whenever we use them. It would bea 
fruitful thought every time we employed any ordinance in 
public or private worship—prayer, reading Scripture, praise, 
sacrament—if we should formally remind ourselves that we 
are going to meet the Holy Ghost that he may lead us into 
the presence of the Father through the Son. These ordinances 


—— ee lL ee 


THE Sprrit In Pustic WorsHIP. 399 


are not only instruments of worship towards God, but means of 
srace for ourselves. They are the acts which the King has pre- 
scribed by which we are authorized to. approach him and obtain 
his favors. They can only be defeated by defective use. Their 
power will be increased by increased degrees of rightness in 
their use. The presence of the Hoiy Spirit properly dictates 
certain effects in the use of the ordinances. In the first place, 
it dictates the use of all the ordinances, not to all men indiscrim- 
inately, but only such of them as have been prescribed to cer- 
tain classes of men. Some of them have been appointed to be 
used by unregenerate men in order to regenerate them. Others 
have been appointed for the use only of regenerate men in 
order to their growth in grace; and the limitation in the use 
is to be observed, as well as the use itself. Prayer, reading the 
Scriptures, and attending on the whole worship of the sanc- 
tuary, may be lawfully used by the worst of men. The sac- 
rament of baptism as applicable to adults, and the sacrament 
of the supper, are only to be used by those who avow their 
faith and obligation to obey the Saviour. But no one, saint 
or sinner, has the right to decline the use of any ordinance 
which the law authorizes him to employ; for that authoriza- 
tion not only confers a privilege, but issues a command. It 
is an offence to the present and watchful Spirit to refuse to 
join in all those acts of worship which he has required to be 
used. Disobedience in his special presence is a special 
offence, and effectually discounts the prospect of his blessing. 

In the second place, the presence of the Spirit dictates, 
not merely the use, but the right wse of all the ordinances. 
There is a certain spirit or frame of feeling in which the law 
requires them to be employed. There is @ certain reverence 
which is indispensable. To challenge the Holy Spirit of God 
to meet us in the act and ordinance which he himself has ap- 
pointed for the purpose, involves the obligation to do it with 
a reverent frame of mind suitable to his majesty. To meet 
him before whom all angels bow in adoring awe, with no 


400 GiIFts To BELIEVERS. 


more concern than we would whistle up a dog or speak to a 
boot-black, is appalling irreverence. All our intuitions of moral 
propriety are shocked by disrespectful conduct in the pre- 
sence of superior dignity ; and we fear a very brief inspection 
of the frames of feeling in which we commonly appear in the 
sanctuary would disclose a most alarming want of reverence 
and godly awe in the worship of God. 

In the third place, the presence ‘and the purposes with 
which the Holy Ghost presides in the worship of the Chris- 
tian assembly dictates the eager expectation of a blessing on 
the worshipper. ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” 
is acommand and a promise peculiarly adapted, and as such, 
designed for the public assemblies of believers. These ordi- 
nances of worship are not designed as mere empty forms. 
God is seeking not merely the homage which is due to him- 
self, but he is seeking also the highest interests of his poor, 
sinful, and unhappy creatures. His appointed ordinances 
carry richer blessings, when rightly used, than all the valu- 
ables of the world put together. They ought to be employed, 
therefore, with an eager confidence in the grace they tender. 
They ought to be used with a lively desire and expectation, 
with an earnestness and vigor, an absorbed interest and oc- 
cupation of thought and feeling, exclusive of all other 
thoughts and feelings, all other ideas and things. 

In the fourth place, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the 
use of the ordinances determines also the spirit of joy and 
gladness in the public or private worship of God. « The rev- 
erence due to his divine majesty does not in the least detract 
from the joy that is also legitimately due to his presence 
and the gracious purposes for which he is present. He is in 
the ordinances as the Paraclete, the one ready to be called 
to our side for the help of every worshipper. He is there 
for the purpose of taking the things of Christ and showing 
them unto us. He is there to unseal to our dull vision the 
gladness of the gospel. He is there to enable us to “serve 


Ca I EOE EE vss 


eee 


THE Spirit IN Pupiic Worsurp. 401 


the Lord with gladness.” How shamefully has the spirit of 
joy been banished from the worship of God, the gracious! 
Any true or adequate apprehension of the Spirit’s presence 
would make the worship of the sanctuary and the closet ring 
with delight. His presiding grace dictates a lively and loving 
expectation of joy and comfort in waiting upon him, an an- 
ticipation of realizing all the gracious ends of divine worship, 
comfort, and strength to saints, awakening and conversion 
to sinners. 

In the fifth place, the presence of the Spirit in the public 
sanctuary dictates the keeping pure and entire all such ordi- 
nances as he has appointed, not taking anything away, not 
adding anything to them. It requires strict compliance with 
his given law concerning ordinances. The notion is enter- 
tained by certain sections of the Christian body, that the 
presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly of 
believers warrants any and every one to take the leadership 
of the worship when impressed with the belief that they are 
moved by the presiding power to do so. This notion is un- 
founded. If the Holy Ghost did so move, it would of course 
be right. But the presence of the Spirit is not designed to 
abolish the written laws he has ordained, but rather to 
secure their fulfilment. The words of Holy Writ are to be 
the guide of all acceptable worship; they order what is to 
be done; they affix every restriction, as well as impose every 
precept. The refusal to observe those restrictions, so far 
from being justified by his presence, is rather a demonstra- 
tion of his absence. 

In the last place, the right use of the ordinances, as de- 
termined by the presence of the Holy Ghost, dictates always 
a look beyond the ordinances to the Spirit himself to give them 
efficacy. To rest in the ordinances, though given by God 
himself, is to repudiate his own agency, which is alone effica- 
cious. To attribute a mystic energy to the ordinances them- 
selves, as many do, is to rely upon them, and to renounce all 


26 


402 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


dependence on God himself or on his grace back of the ordi- 
nances. This is the grand central doctrine of Christianity, 
that salvation is of the Lord, and that he alone can give the 
increase, though even Paul may plant and Apollos water. 
The presence of the Spirit confirms this doctrine; there 
would be no need for his presence or the forth-putting of his 
energy if the doctrine was false. This living presence of the 
Holy Ghost requires every worshipper, while using the in- 
strumental means of grace, with all fervor and engagedness 
of feeling, to construe them as they really are, mere means, 
and to look beyond them to the power of the living Spirit, 
who alone can give them any efficacious energy or saving 
effects. This is the vital difference between an evangelical 
and a ritual religion. 

This wonderful truth of the presence of the Spirit in the 
Christian assembly ought to make us open our hearts, and 
always keep the attitude of expectancy of a blessing and a 
readiness to receive it. Let it be distinctly marked and 
remembered, that this official presence of the Spirit 1s con- 
stant, a regular incident of all regular public worship, and 
not, as the course of events for many years has taught us to 
construe it, as only the incident of special occasions, called 
revivals. If Christians would honor the Holy Spirit more in 
his regular offices in public worship, and always keep them- 
selves designedly amenable to his influence, both in the 
sanctuary and out of it, there would be far more constant 
and effective manifestations of his power and grace, both in 
building up the saints and in the salvation of sinners, than is 
to be seen now. The long intervals of barrenness, the cold- 
ness and discomfort of Christians are due, in great measure, 
to the well-nigh complete degree in which all divisions of 
the church have lost the practical and adequate apprehen- 
sion of the presence and the official designs of the Holy Ghost 
as the presiding power in the Christian assembly for public 
worship. 


CHAPTER XIV. 
THEH PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 


‘“‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.”—Paul to the Corinthians. 


HE lesson which we propose to draw from these words, 

and confirm by other testimonies from the word of 
God, is the proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit, and 
the infinitely important practical uses and consequences 
which flow from it. By the personality of the Spirit is 
meant, that he is a person, not a mere quality, a distinct ex- 
istence having the qualities of a distinct person, and not a 
mere attribute or characteristic quality of another person. 
A person is different from a mere thing, not only in the pos- 
session of reason, moral quality, and a will colored by these 
attributes, but as possessed of a consciousness of these powers. 
The doctrine of the Trinity is the datum of the Scriptures 
alone. This is equally true of both elements of the doc- 
trine—the unity of the Godhead, and the trinity of the per- 
sons in the Godhead. The history of the human race has 
shown an apparently irresistible tendency in the human 
mind to recognize the existence of many gods. The exist- 
ence of good and evil in this strange world, the universal 
spread of both in some degrees, and the perpetual conflict 
between them, are more easily accounted for by supposing 
two or more hostile superior powers, than by ascribing them 
to the ordering of a single will. Accepting the unity of the 
divine nature, the unguided natural reason in man accepts 
it as excluding any qualifying conception of unity in God- 
hood. But the revelation in the Scriptures, in its progres- 
sive unfolding of the mysteries of the spiritual universe, has 


clearly taught that in the unity of the divine nature, not dis- 
403 


404 GirTs TO BELIEVERS. 


turbing that unity, but in full consistency with it, there are 
mysterious and incomprehensible distinctions which lay the 
foundation for the ascription of names, titles, affections, and 
works to each of these distinctions. What the exact nature 
and mode of existence in these distinctions may be is not 
explained. The fact is asserted ; the mode of its existence is 
left involved in impenetrable mystery. All attempts to under- 
stand and bring the fact under comprehensible forms of 
definition and statement are absolutely useless. For a man 
to spend time and energy in the attempt to comprehend 
what is absolutely incomprehensible is an absolute waste 
of both. In ten thousand things we are compelled to be 
content with the knowledge of a fact, and to remain in abso- 
lute ignorance of its nature, its origin, its method, and many 
other points connected with it. In reference to God, that 
mystery which encompasses all things without exception 
might have been expected to attach itself with extraordinary 
force to the conception of his being. His eternal and un- 
caused existence, his omnipresence, his self-subsistence, the 
whole circle of his attributes, confound our conceptions. 
Our minds are conditioned to conceive, and they cannot con- 
ceive beyond the conditions established for our thinking. 
But we can know facts which we cannot explain in many 
things essentially connected with them. If, then, God is de- 
clared to exist in a unity, embracing and not inconsistent with 
itself in allowing distinctions within that unity, it is a rational 
demand upon our confidence to accept the fact without resist- 
ance or an irrational attempt to define the mode of the fact. 
To a finite mind an infinite existence is simply beyond the 
conditions of its thinking, and consequently can only be 
known as fact, and not comprehended in anything in which 
the infinitude appears. If God is incomprehensible to us in 
his relation to time, space, and the law of causality, he may 
be also in relation to number. If incomprehensible in all 
his infinite attributes, why not in reference to the mode of 


Tur PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRir. 405 


his infinite being? If we can and do accept all other facts 
in his nature which are incomprehensible in théir modes, 
why reject a single fact on the mere ground of incomprehen- 
sibility? If that circumstance warrants the rejection of one 
mysterious fact it would warrant the rejection of them all, 
and reduce us to absolute atheism, because we are not gods 
ourselves, because the thinking capacity of a finite and con- 
ditioned intellect must conform to the conditions of its own 
mental energy, and cannot transcend them. This lands us 
in absurdity. We are, then, content to accept the facts in 
the constitution of the divine nature as they are stated in the 
Bible, without making any attempt whatever to comprehend 
the nature or mode of the facts stated. 

1. We do not propose to present the Scripture testimony 
to the doctrine of the Trinity as a whole, we merely state 
briefly the proof of the personality of the Spirit. The Holy 
Ghost is called by separate personal names. In the apostolic 
benediction he is associated with the Father and the Son, on 
the same level of dignity and authority, and discriminated, as 
they are discriminated from each other, by u distinct and sep- 
arate name. Jf the name /ather is intended to express a 
distinction from the Son, and the name Son to express a 
distinction from the Father, no matter what that distinction 
may actually be, then, unquestionably, the name //oly Ghost 
is intended to express a similar distinction from both the 
Father and the Son. Whatever the distinction may be, it is 
impliedly affirmed of the Spirit as it is of the Father and the 
Son. To make the distinction a personal one between the 
Father and the Son, and then to make the Spirit nothing but 
a mere quality or attribute of either or both of them, is to 
confound the passage with absurdity, and to arbitrarily 
change the signification of names which are indiscrimi- 
nately applied to each distinction in the series. If the dis- 
tinction is personal, as between the Father and the Son, 
it is personal as between the Holy Ghost, on the one side, 


406 ) GIFTS To BELIEVERS. 


and the Father and the Son both on the other. The formula 
of baptism yields the same result. A distinct name, carrying 
the same distinction and implying the same dignity and 
authority, is there applied to the Spirit, as it is to the Father _ 
and the Son. The baptized person is consecrated by the 
ordinance to the service of the Holy Ghost, just as much, 
by the very same ordinance, by the very same words, with 
the very same meaning as he is to the service of the Father 
and the Son; to the service of each one of them as to the 
service of all of them. Personal names are ascribed to the 
Spirit, and emphatically the supremest of all names; he is 
called God, as when the unhappy Ananias and his wife are 
first said to have lied to the Holy Ghost, and then immedi- 
ately after are said to have lied to God. He is called the 
“ Holy Spirit,” “the Spirit of grace,” “the Spirit of holiness,” 
“the good Spirit,” “the Spirit of Christ,” “the Spirit of the 
Lord,” and absolutely “the Spirit.” He is described as pro- 
ceeding from the “Father and the Son,” yet is emphatically 
called “the free Spirit” and “the eternal Spirit.” These 
personal names are employed in such connections as to leave 
no doubt of their design to designate a person, and not a 
quality. 
Personal attributes are ascribed to him. He is said to be 
holy, wise, good, active, powerful, eternal, and free. Per- 
sonal affections are ascribed to him. He is said to be grieved, 
pleased, offended and tempted. A personal will is ascribed 
to him: “As they ministered unto the Lord, and fasted, the 
Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work whereunto I have called them.” ‘Take heed therefore 
unto yourselves, and to all the fiock, over the which the Holy 
Ghost hath made you overseers.” Personal actions are as- 
cribed to him. He is said to teach, to strive, to comfort, to 
lead, to intercede, to bring to remembrance, to create, to regen- 
erate, to search all things, yea, even the deep things of God. 
He is said to know, to choose, to call men to particular acts of 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. AQT 


service, to guide and govern the church as a whole, and the 
souls of believers. He is called God, and the incommunicable 
and exclusive attributes of God are ascribed to him. If such 
qualities, names, affections, and positive actions do not prove 
personality, nothing can prove it. To attribute will, know- 
ledge, capacity of feeling, choice, and action, to a mere ab- 
stract quality is absurd. A personal being only is capable 
of such things. 

9. The personality of the Spirit is not a mere unproductive 
exactness of theological opinion; it is full of infinitely im- 
portant practical uses. The Spirit is the great agent for 
applying the redemption purchased by Christ. He alone, 
under the arrangements of the covenant, can awaken and 
bring a sinner to seek for salvation. He alone can regen- 
erate a carnal, and sanctify a regenerate, soul. Without his 
incessant concurrent action the ordinances are absolutely 
powerless. Without his aid no prayer will be answered, no 
grace can develop, no strength can be secured, no comfort 
can be enjoyed. If the Holy Spirit is a mere quality, con- 
ditioning all spiritual benefit and hope, it is clear that no 
special solicitude, attention or application need be, or can be 
directed to him. The only object of such feelings and acts 
will be the person who possesses and administers this qual- 
ity. But if the Holy Spirit 2s a person, it is obvious that if 
any hope of his gracious offices is to be indulged he must 
be recognized as a person; he must be approached as a 
person; he must be conciliated as a person in every applica- 
tion made to him. Any attempt to misconstrue him, to 
deprive him of his personal character, or his personal rights, 
may be expected to result in the defeat of the objects for 
which the approach and appeal are made. 

3. The first all-important and intensely practical inference 
from the personality of the Spirit is this necessity of ap- 
proaching him as a person. This involves the necessity of 
making this approach suitably to has personal character, to the 


408 GIFTs TO BELIEVERS. 


glory of his qualities, and to the greatness of his divine majesty. 
The very grace of the Holy Spirit, and the very freedom of 
our access to him, symbolized by the wide air and the 
abounding waters, has a tendency to lead our misguided 
feelings into degrading and dangerous conceptions of his 
influence and his gracious affections towards sinners. We 
are so prone to the abuse of mercies, it tends to present 
him to us rather as a quality or a provided influence, im- 
personal as the air, always accessible, creating no special 
solicitude to enjoy it, incapable of offence or personal affec- 
tions of any kind; and, therefore, a thing which may be neg- 
lected, made subject to our convenience, postponable without 
hazard for other interests, just because of the width, con- 
stancy, and patient energy of the blessed influence itself. 
But the influence of the Spirit is the goodness and power 
residing in a personal will, and while comparable to water, 
or to the wide and free-flowing winds, on account of its 
infinite strength and tenderness, and the freedom with which 
it is offered to all who need its grace, nevertheless it is not 
comparable to water or air in its insensibility to abusive 
treatment. Water may be fouled and rendered unfit for 


service ; the free winds may be loaded with poisonous gases; — 


yet neither water nor air suffer, because they are not sensi- 
tive, because they are not persons. But the Holy Spirit is 
a person ; his wide, free grace is simply the intense and mas- 
terly affection of a personal will, infinite in its compassionate 
and tender sensibilities. But this very fact that it is personal 
love and kindness is proof of a personal control over its 
direction and application. It may be checked by abuse; it 
may be alienated by presumption; it may be directed upon 
one and averted from another; it may distribute one degree 
of its energy to one, and a greater or a less degree to an- 
other ; it may be sought or despised; it may thus be granted 
or denied. Sought aright there is every assurance of its 
being granted; neglected or misused, it is assured of being 


Tur PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 409 


removed. It becomes evident, then, from the personality of 
the Spirit, that it is a matter of incalculable importance that 
all who seek his favor, whether sinners seeking grace to 
convert them, or saints seeking increase of grace, or any of 
his special acts for their benefit, must conform to the de- 
mands of his personal nature or to the conditions of his official 
interference. Humility, fervor, and absolute sincerity, rev- 
erence, patience, submission to his own times, terms, and 
measures in his gifts, and absolute confidence in his wisdom 
and grace in giving or withholding, are indispensable to suc- 
cess in seeking his favor. 

There must be a compliance with his known will. He 1s 
God; he must be sought with unfeigned reverence. He is holy; 
sin must be renounced; for if we regard iniquity in our hearts 
he will not hear; if we come with cherished evil, fresh on 
our hands, he will despise our prayer. Isaiah explained 
why Israel was not heard, though they made many prayers: 
their hands were full of blood. The sinner, seeking the con- 
verting grace of the Spirit, must, at once, and in advance of 
obtaining it, put away his known sins. The drunkard must 
abandon his bottle, and the licentious his lust. He must 
abandon his prayerlessness, and begin to pray; he must give 
up his disregard of the Bible, and begin to read it. No mat- 
ter what the will of the Spirit requires, there must be an 
effort to comply with it. This rule of action, determined by 
the personality of the Spirit, is equally applicable to the 
believer seeking growth and special graces; and doubtless 
the reason why so many prayers of the saints apparently 
and actually fail is, that the Holy Ghost, as the sole source 
of acceptable prayer, is not suitably recognized as such, and 
proper attention is not given to comply with his will. 

The personality of the Spirit also determines another fact 
all-important to be recognized, and dealt with accordingly ; 
that is, that the Holy Ghost may be grieved and offended. 
His influence is the only stay to the natural growth and 


410 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


maturity of moral evil in the inward nature, and in the 
visible conduct of all men. left to themselves, the ruin 
would soon become absolute and irretrievable. This evil is 
an energy in the will of sinning agents. The conflict of the 
Spirit is not with mere dead or fossilized habits, but with an 
active, positive, persistent energy of personal will, seeking to 
do evil, and to enjoy its results. Consequently, there is always 
present in all the restraining and purifying conflicts of the 
Holy Ghost an element of provocation to him of intense and ex- 
asperating offence. It is a wonder he ever makes the strug- 
gle at all. Itis no wonder he sometimes gives up the contest. 
“My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” said God, just 
before the waters of the flood were turned loose on a world 
of incorrigible sinners. There is such a thing as “grieving 
the Spirit.” There is such a thing as “quenching the 
Spirit.” There is such a thing as God saying, “Ephraim 
is joined to idols; let him alone.” No conception of the 
work of the Holy Ghost is more full of power to warn 
the presumptuous and overawe the scornful than this truth 
of the personality of the Spirit and his consequent capability 
of being offended. To guard the Holy Spirit from insult in 
the near contact which his office involves with all the secret, 
but to him undisguised, pollutions of a fallen soul, the Serip- 
tures seem to have taken particular pains. They have sur- 
rounded him with certain vague, but menacing safe-guards, 
which are appalling in their mysterious terrors. Blasphemy 
against the Father and against the Son may be forgiven; 
but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost hath never forgive- 
ness. This offence to the Spirit, whatever it may be, is the 
only sin which cannot be forgiven. It is not easy to discern 
the reasons of this peculiar solicitude for the honor of the 
Spirit, as compared with the honor of the Father and the 


Son. It may be due to that close personal contact with the — 


sin in the soul, which his work demands of him. He comes 
into the very midst of the infernal mob. The stench of the 


_——-. 


aes on 
-* 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 411 


unclean birds is in his nostril; the hiss of the serpents 1s in 
his ear; the insulting, malicious demeanor of the lurking 
fiends is in his eye. He is liable to peculiar violence, and 
he is guarded specially against it. His work also gives effect 
to all the provisions of the covenant. Without his work the 
counsels of the Father would fail ; the whole work and sacri- 
fice of the Son would come to nothing. To resist his work, 
then, is to resist all the work of the Father and the Son also. 
To do despite to the Spirit is to do despite to the whole 
Godhead; to resist the love of the Spirit is at the same time 
to resist the love of the rest of the sacred Trinity. Yet 
again, the Spirit’s entrance into the unregenerate heart is a 
free accession to it. So far as man, the sinner, is concerned, 
his original entry is absolutely free, not under any covenant 
bond to him to do it or to repeat it. To resist it involves 
peculiar wickedness and peculiar foolhardiness. His free 
entry involves a peculiar personal kindness, and on this 
account resistance to it involves a peculiar ingratitude. Yet 
more, that hatred to God, which 1s the universal distinctive 
trait of the carnal mind, is peculiarly obnoxious to the Holy 
Spirit, inasmuch as being the immediate agent of applied grace 
he has to come into a closer contact with it. These reasons 
are more vaguely suggestive, than positively demonstrative, 
of the cause why the Spirit is so specially ouarded against 
insult in the unholy human heart. But the fact is clear, 
however perplexing the reason of it may be. The nature of 
that sin against the Holy Ghost which is never to be for- 
given is involved in an obscurity that creates a vague terror 
and makes us tread lightly, even at a distance, from the 
guarded shrine of the honor of the Spirit. Some have him- 
ited it to the form of the sin in which it first appeared, that 
is, in the blasphemous ascription of the Saviour’s miracles to 
evil spirits. As they were done by the concurrent power of 
the Holy Spirit resting on his human energies, the ascrip- 
tion of them to a devilish agency was a direct and malignant 


412 Girts To BELIEVERS. 


assault on the Holy Ghost, as well as on the Son. The 
Pharisees, in order to break the force of the miracles, claimed 
that they were done through a compact with the prince of the 
devils, who had, therefore, given order to his subordinates 
to obey the commands of the Nazarene. If the form of the 
sin contained the essence of the sin, then the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost was confined to the period of the 
Saviour’s personal life, and could not be committed after- 
wards. But it is a dangerous pulling down of the defences 
of the Spirit, perhaps a dangerous making it easy to commit 
the sin, to construe it in this manner. The essence of the 
sin was probably different from the mere form of it as commit- 
ted by the Pharisees. That malignant hatred to the doctrine 
and the person of the Redeemer, which lay at the core of 
Pharisees’ blasphemy, has often appeared since; and this 
feeling may involve the sin against the Spirit which hath 
never forgiveness. The whole narrative of his history, and 
the whole statement of his doctrines, have been given under 
the superintendence of the Spirit; they are thus endorsed by 
him ; and to assail the record is to assail the Maker of it. If 
hatred to Christ involved the outrage on the Spirit at first, it 
is equally probable that the same malignant temper may 
always involve it. The personality of the Spirit, involving as 
it does a capability of offence, is thus shown to involve the 
most solemn and impressive lesson in the whole revelation of 
God concerning the sins of men, the lesson that there is one 
sin which the blood of the Son cannot purge away, which 
the infinite benignity of the Father cannot pardon. 

4, The personality of the Spirit also determines his claim 
to our confidence in his personal qualities and his personal 
affections, as qualifying him for his great trust. No approach 
or application to him can be expected to succeed which does 
not do some justice to his fitness, to the qualities which ad- 
just him to the work assigned to him. Equal justice must 
be done to the affections which animate him and encourage 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 413 


the appeal to his power. He has asserted both in the word 
he has inspired, and confidence in his word will breed confi- 
dence in his fitness and his love. Want of confidence in 
either lays no ground of hope or expectation of his favor. 
His fitness and his loving-kindness are both grounded in his 
personality. No one is qualified to deal with the strong and 
complicated evils in a fallen nature, unless endowed with an 
intelligence and a strength equal to the emergency. His 
love is equally essential; his sympathy and readiness to help 
are indispensable to make the appeal of a soul conscious of 
its sin, hopeful, and persevering. Just in proportion as 
justice is done to the loving heart of the Holy Ghost, and the 
anxious mind of the seeker for grace can realize the infinite, 
brooding tenderness of his grace, his delight in his work, 
his pity, his patience, and the unsearchable freedom and 
riches of his grace, just in this proportion will spring the joy 
and comfort of a real hope and confidence of his blessing. 
The personality of the Spirit also gives assurance touching 
his power to help us effectively. There is great power in 
impersonal agencies and energies; but they are not always 
available. Even when under the direction of personal intel- 
-ligence and will, they require the intervention of machinery 
to render them effective in the use of the power that is in 
them. If the Holy Ghost is a mere quality, and not a per- 
son, he is unfit to serve our uses. We are assailed by a 
mighty personal intelligence; we ourselves are personal in- 
telligences with all their changeable impulses ; the evil to be 
combatted in our nature resides in the living and shifting 
energies of a personal will. A mere quality cannot help us, 
because it exerts its force along certain fixed lines, and ac- 
cording to a certain fixed constitution in its own nature. It 
is consequently unfit to cope with the infinitely various mani- 
festations of a personal will, subject, in addition to its own 
impulses, to the subtle temptations of personal wills outside 
of its own proper sphere. But the personality of the Spirit 


414 GIFTS TO BELIEVERS. 


makes him a match for Satan and for man, in not only the 
degree of his power, but in the mode and adjustability of its 
exercise. It therefore lays the foundation for unlimited con- 
fidence in his teaching, in his guidance, in his protection, 
and in his control of all events and vicissitudes of the spir- 
itual history and experience of those in whom he dwells. 
The personality of the Spirit teaches us to recognize and 
conform to his determining will. The changes in the reli- 
gious experiences of regenerate souls are sometimes unac- 
countable in their apparent causes, and in the ends and 
purposes for which they are ordered. The changes which 
took place in Job’s condition, outwardly and inwardly, must 
have appeared very strange to the people who knew him. 
They could not account for it. They knew nothing of the 
scene between God and Satan. They knew nothing of the 
grand lessons of instruction to all ages and generations of 
the world which God was intending to educe. Many similar 
cases of great affliction to good men have since occured. 
The general purpose in all such cases is the purpose of all 
afflictions whatever; it is a spiritual profit, that we may be 
partakers of holiness, as Paul puts it. This is the proximate 
cause. A remoter cause is the determination of his own 
will in the sovereign Spirit; he determines to subject his 
loved pupil and subject to this sorrow, just as the Father sub- 
jected Job. It is the result of his sovereign will; but his 
will is never separate from reasons; the more sovereign the 
will the stronger the assurance of reasons, though known 
only to himself. Therefore an absolute trust in the wisdom 
and the love embodied in the will of the Holy Ghost in all 
spiritual trials, and the resolute and loyal determination to 
submit and conform to that will, is essential to peace and the 
highest profit under these spiritual trials. The assurance 
of the propriety of that unerring will which orders them is 
found in the infinitely perfect, personal qualities of the Holy 
Ghost; qualities which are guaranteed to us by his per- 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE Sprrir. 415 


sonality. To conceive the vicissitudes of Christian experi- 
ence, however attributable to other causes as they always 
are, aS In no sense due to the wise and faithful ordering of 
the indwelling Spirit, is to subject his people to the same 
bitter sorrow with which we recognize the trials of life, apart 
from the wise and gracious ordering of the Father in the 
sphere of providence. The control of an unerring personal 
will is essential to mental peace under both forms of trial. 
The personality of the Spirit holds high relations to the in- 
terests of his people under the vicissitudes of the spiritual life. 

5. Lastly, the personality of the Spirit assures us of Ais 
rights, his own regard to them, and the danger of infringing 
them. He has a right to command; it is dangerous to dis- 
obey. He has a right to enter the heart of any sinner; it is 
dangerous to resist him. He has a right to convict of sin 
and to lead to the Saviour; it is perilous to refuse his en- 
lightenment and to go where he leads the way. He has a 
right to confidence, to gratitude, to obedience; it is dangerous 
to deny him either of these claims. He has a right to reverent 
treatment, to be met freely in his gracious advances, to be 
loved and appealed to at all times and under all circum- 
stances. He has a right to be recognized as a person, and 
dealt with as such in all the acts and offices in which he is 
appointed to execute the covenant of grace. Every sinner 
seeking pardon should deal with him as a person. Every 
Christian seeking for his seal, his unction, his witness, or his 
comforts should deal with him as a person. All should deal 
with him as a person endowed with his great and lovely 
attributes ought to be, as infinitely holy, wise, powerful, and 
full of gracious tenderness and love. The Holy Spirit is 
God, and has all the rights of the infinite and glorious Lord 
over all his own creatures, to their love and faithful service, 
world without end. To refuse him even the least of them 
all is to rob and repudiate him; than which nothing can be 
conceived more wicked or more dangerous, more insulting to 
him, or more ruinous to the creature. 


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